As Italy prepare to get their Euro championship defence started on Thursday against England, their manager Roberto Mancini says the country is short of players, especially strikers.
The Azzurri welcome the Three Lions to Naples for their opening Euro 2024 qualifying match, but Mancini who led Italy to their second European Championship title in 2020 isn’t very excited as he bemoans the lack of players at his disposal.
The former Man City boss points out that the reason for this is because children no longer play street football like in the old days, and the fact that top Italian clubs have very few local players playing for them.
“We are worse off than Southgate,” Mancini said. “I don’t know why there are so few strikers, we are very limited going forward. We have three teams in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, but out of the three teams, there are seven or eight Italians at most. This is the reality.
“We used to play for three or four hours on the street and then go to train, today this no longer happens. It is no coincidence that players are still discovered in those countries, such as Uruguay, Argentina or Brazil, where people still play a lot in the streets.”
Mancini is saddened by the fact that Only one Italian-born player features in Serie A’s Top 10 goal scorers. It is Ciro Immobile who plays for Lazio, but the forward is currently injured.
Napoli have been almost unplayable this season, but it is majorly thanks to their striker Victor Osimhen who is a Nigeria international. Osimhen leads the top scoring charts in the Serie A with 21 goals.
