ROME (AP) — Italy won’t get a chance at redemption for Roberto Baggio’s miss in the 1994 World Cup final at the Rose Bowl.
The four-time champion isn’t even going back to North America for this year’s tournament after a penalty shootout loss to 66th-ranked Bosnia-Herzegovina in the qualifying playoffs.
It’s the third straight World Cup that Italy will miss after getting eliminated at the same stage by Sweden ahead of the 2018 World Cup and by North Macedonia in 2022.
Here’s a look at five reasons why the Azzurri continue to struggle:
Del Piero and Totti long gone
Compared to the title-winning 2006 Italy squad that featured standouts like Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti and Andrea Pirlo, there haven’t been Italian players of that caliber for years.
The most expensive player on the current squad is midfielder Sandro Tonali, who was purchased by Newcastle in 2023 for about 80 million euros ($93 million).
The only other world-class player is Manchester City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
The starting strikers are Argentine-born Mateo Retegui and Moise Kean of Fiorentina.
Serie A is now a retirement destination
The Italian league was considered the best in the world in the 1980s and 1990s when the likes of Diego Maradona, Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit came to play in the primes of their careers. It’s where Kaka won the Ballon d’Or award with AC Milan in 2007 — the last Italy-based player to receive the honor.
These days, ageing standouts like 40-year-old Luka Modric (at Milan) and 39-year-old Jamie Vardy (Cremonese) come to Serie A to conclude their careers.
So without international stars, the league’s level has dropped and that has a trickle-down effect on the national team.
Juventus, which used to provide the backbone for Italy’s squad, hasn’t won Serie A since 2020. And there wasn’t a single Milan player on the playoff squad.
Tennis taking over with Jannik Sinner
Inspired by Jannik Sinner’s accomplishments, tennis is encroaching on soccer’s status as Italy’s most popular sport. Hordes of kids are gravitating to tennis instead of the traditional pastime of kicking a soccer ball around on a street.
In 2025, 21.6 million Italians said they were soccer fans and 19.9 million said they watched tennis and padel, according to Nielsen Fun Insights.
Italy is also finding success in Formula 1 with 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli winning the last two races.
And the host country is coming off a record performance at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
“These things go in cycles,” Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso said last week. “When I see us winning in other sports it gets me motivated. It makes me feel pride. … Right now our history tells us that we’re struggling.”
No song and cheer
Apart from when it reaches the latter stages of major tournaments, Italy’s national team doesn’t inspire much interest at home and has no organized fans.
Whereas every professional club in Italy has an organized fan base or “ultras” that supports its team with chants and scarves, the Azzurri are not backed by song or cheer on a consistent basis.
Gattuso preferred to play last week’s playoff semifinal in Bergamo’s 23,500-seat stadium rather than the much larger San Siro because he noticed that Milan and Inter fans whistled at players from opposing clubs during a loss to Norway in Milan in November.
“At the first errant pass you start hearing the whistles,” Gattuso said.
Milan and Rome stadiums still in planning stages
Italy is also far behind other European leagues in terms of building new soccer stadiums.
Milan and Inter only recently purchased the San Siro from the city so they can tear it down and build a new stadium in time for the 2032 European Championship that Italy is co-hosting with Turkey.
Meanwhile, Roma is in the final stages of obtaining the necessary permits to build its own arena after more than a decade of delays so it can move out of the Stadio Olimpico.
Of Italy’s major clubs, only Juventus currently owns and operates a modern stadium.
The lack of club-owned stadiums means that teams can’t earn enough to compete with wealthy rivals from abroad — which weighs down Serie A and affects the national team.
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