Three World Cups missed and no end in sight: what has gone wrong with Italian football?
There was a time when Italy missing a World Cup felt unthinkable. Now it barely qualifies as a surprise. Tuesday night's 4-1 penalty shootout loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed what everyone watching European qualifying already suspected: this Italy side are nowhere near good enough, and the problems run far deeper than one bad night in Zenica.
The pattern keeps repeating
In 2017, Sweden knocked them out in a playoff. In 2022, North Macedonia beat them at home with an injury-time goal. In 2026, Bosnia did the job from the penalty spot after Alessandro Bastoni's red card left Italy chasing the game with 10 men for nearly 80 minutes.
Three different coaches. Three different squads. Three different opponents. The same result every time. It stopped being a coincidence years ago.
Gennaro Gattuso took over from Luciano Spalletti in June 2025 and brought the intensity and aggression his teams are known for. But intensity alone does not fix a talent pipeline that has been leaking for the best part of a decade. Italy's squad in Zenica lacked the quality in midfield and attack that previous generations took for granted.
The youth system is not producing
When Italy won Euro 2020 under Roberto Mancini, it looked like a golden generation was forming. Federico Chiesa, Barella, Bastoni, Donnarumma. Five years on, injuries have robbed Chiesa of his explosiveness, and the players who were supposed to emerge behind that group simply have not.
Serie A's reliance on overseas talent is part of the story. Young Italian players get fewer minutes at the top level than their counterparts in Germany, France or Spain. The Primavera system produces technically gifted players, but they rarely break through at their parent clubs when cheaper imports are available.
Where does Italy go from here?
Gravina has already indicated he wants Gattuso to stay. That feels more like institutional inertia than a genuine plan. The real question is whether Italian football is prepared to do the structural work that Germany did after their 2018 group-stage exit. Germany rebuilt from the academies up and reached the 2024 Euros as hosts with a squad full of young talent.
Italy have not shown any appetite for that kind of overhaul. They keep replacing the coach, keep picking roughly the same type of squad, and keep expecting different results. At some point, the definition of insanity kicks in.
The 2006 World Cup winners are starting to feel like ancient history. Grosso's penalty against France, Cannavaro lifting the trophy, Pirlo pulling strings in midfield. That was 20 years ago. Italian football has spent most of the time since then sliding backwards, and Tuesday night in Zenica was just the latest step down.
Something fundamental has to change. The worry is that nobody in charge seems willing to admit it.
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