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.
Gigi Riva 35 goal-42 caps…… nothing else to add, simply the best….
There are six English players who’ve scored more. Kane should get to 70 soon
Totally surprising, also just Googled Immobile and he has only scored 17 goals for Italy. I mean they haven’t been at their best lately (except for 2021), but hasn’t Immobile been their starting striker for almost a decade now? The guy has had many club seasons with 20+ league goals.
Immobile didn’t start for Italy until qualifying for '18 WC our strikers for Euro 16 were Graziano Pele and Eder.
Yikes what a sorry bunch of strikers.
Very much a symptom of the more defensive nature of Italian football particularly through the 90s - In 93/94 AC Milan won the league scoring just 36 goals in a 34 game season.
Also all of the most capped outfield players for Italy are defenders and defensive midfielders. And if you look at the caps of Italy’s all time top scorers only Del Pierro has more than 64 caps with the rest mostly around the 30-60 cap range so you wouldn’t expect many to get 35+ goals
That’s one less than David Healy has scored for Northern Ireland.
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
Immobile should have been leading scorer.
And if he gets there I don’t see anyone moving him.
And if he gets there I don’t see anyone moving him.
Maybe the number of great strikers hurts their totals. With some countries they have to stick with players for a long time, if you have a glut of talent you will change more often
maybe another factor is their trust in young players
Are you suggesting that they trust players too young and they never fulfil the potential or that they trust younger players and cast aside older ones?
they always seem to lean on the old gaurd rather than taking a chance on youth.
inzaghi was 25 and vieiri 24 when they made their debuts for example
only one i can think of of any note is baggio who was a teen debutant