5 min readApr 1, 2026 08:33 AM IST
Rome would burn, Milan would rage, Naples would weep. A proud footballing heritage laid in tatters at the Bilino Polje Stadium in Zenica. For the third successive time, four-time world champions Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup. This time, they lost on penalty shootouts to Bosnia and Herzegovina, a nation that did not exist when the USA hosted its last World Cup (1994), a country with a population less than Italy’s capital Rome.
The most heartbreaking sight of the night was coach Gennaro Gattuso wearing a face of defiance and consoling his devastated troops. Some had wrapped their heads in their shirts. Some were crying on the turf, some stood stone-faced, the moment of misery yet to fully register. Gattuso, the indefatigable midfielder who has locked Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who had hoisted every possible trophy the game could offer, clutched his pain beneath the stern face. He probably wouldn’t flee the country, as he had said before taking charge of the teetering ship. But in the confines of the dressing room or the hotel room, he would break down.
Of all the three heartbreaks, this would shatter the country most. The first could be brushed as an aberration, the second a shiver, but the third was a blatant message that footballing glory has left the country. It ripped up the delusion that it is still a football powerhouse. The rot and decay had long set in, some had refused, some denied, some turned a blind eye, but in this moment, Italian football unravelled and bared its casket of skeletons. The triumph of Euro 2020 seems like an exception rather than resurgence. It’s not the time to look into the mirror, but thrash it to splinters.
The truth is simple. Italy is no longer the nest of Europe’s singing birds. They no longer produce players like Paolo Maldini and Roberto Baggio; their best player of the generation, Sandro Tonali, turns up for an English club, Newcastle United, that has not lifted a meaningful trophy in ages. They can no longer match the technical and physical standards of the world’s best. Bosnia out-thought and out-muscled them; they drove Ferraris and Lamborghinis through the cracks in their defence, the hallowed strength of Italy. They could have put 10 defenders and yet leaked a goal.
Italy’s Marco Palestra, and Leonardo Spinazzola console each other after losing a penalty shootout during the World Cup qualifying playoff final match vs Bosnia. (PHOTO: AP)
The tall and physical Bosnian players easily out-leapt them, a sin in any era of Italian football. The equalising goal was thus born. They were too slow and ponderous. The moment that led to the red card would have broken glasses in the Maldini household. Alessandro Bastoni, once hyped up as Maldini’s spiritual successor, had a headstart over Amar Memic. But he let his opponent spin past him. Rather than chasing him, he chose the easier and more dangerous path of sticking his leg out. Thus, much of Italy’s misery was self-inflicted. It is hard to argue that Italy were the better team. Bosnia made 723 passes to Italy’s 420; they took 31 shies at goal to Italy’s nine, with 11 on target to the visitors’ three.
ALSO READ | Italy’s final step towards ending World Cup exile goes through ‘Dragon’s Nest’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina
It’s no fault of Gattuso. He has barely managed them for a year. Manager with better pedigree and larger trophy collection had failed. It’s time for another long period of retrospection and planning forward. Worryingly, they would find the same riddles that had been blowing in the winds, not since they failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time (in 2018), but the day they crashed out of the 2010 World Cup without winning a game.
Story continues below this ad
The standards of the league have plummeted. In the last 29 years, only one Italian club has lifted the Champions League. The best of the world don’t flock to AC Milan or Juventus or Roma. Rather, it’s the resort of semi-retired, nearly-elites of the world. The influx to Saudi had left them with footballers the best leagues of the world had shunned. Youngsters don’t even consider Serie A as a launchpad, rather flocking to the Portuguese and German leagues for development.
Italy not qualifying is a failure at several levels. It captures a broken system; a shattered legacy; of corruption and of not committing to the job of growing the business. In a weird way, they are suffering the fate of West Indies cricket, once titans, now nobodies. The World Cup would miss them, not perhaps the lamentable standards of the current crop, but its storied history.
The lone ray of hope is the world-class managers they are churning out, those that have succeeded in England and Spain. Tactics in Serie A have worked in tougher leagues too. There is a new wave of young managers, like Roberto de Zerbi. Some of the older ones are still around. Perhaps, it’s time to dial the godfather of all, Carlo Ancelotti, tasked to revive Brazil, after the World Cup. Perhaps, even he can spread light to the darkness that spread over Italian football.
