That is the lowest total of any major footballing power and has stood for nearly 50 years. From a country that has produced Rossi, Baggi, Del Piero, Vieri et all that blows my mind… Wow.
That is the lowest total of any major footballing power and has stood for nearly 50 years. From a country that has produced Rossi, Baggi, Del Piero, Vieri et all that blows my mind… Wow.
Defensive mentality is probably the biggest factor, as many have said.
Also, the abundance of great attacking players (particularly 10s) in the ‘90s and ‘00s meant that no player was really nailed into the starting XI.
Across that time period, some of the 10s have been Baggio, Zola, Mancini, Del Piero, Totti, Cassano, etc all sharing playing time at some point or another.
The early ‘90s saw some pretty good striker alternate for Italy up front, but I feel like none of them was generational.
The mid-to-late 90s saw the emergence of Vieri and Inzaghi, although they often had to coexist and share playing time, and therefore goals. Additionally, both of them have had much shorter international careers (49 and 57 caps) compared to strikers from other countries.
Balotelli was the new big thing in the early ‘10s, he was touted as the Italian top striker of the generation, destined to break Riva’s record, etc but we all know how that went.
And then generally after him, there hasn’t really been much quality. Immobile, Pellé, Zaza, Belotti, etc have all alternated with pretty disappointing results.
Also useful to know that Italy use their youth teams properly. I remember when Rooney and Cassano were seen as relatively similar players back in the day. Check both of their youth intl records - Cassano 30+ youth intl games, Rooney 1 after under 17s then straight into the main team. In short Italy do not tend to rush in strikers and subsequently someone like Vieri only played 49 games (debut around 22-23). Compare that to say Michael Owen who had played 3 tournaments by 22, they do not get to pad their stats early on