Bruno Giordano: “The elimination of Italy is no surprise, there are many technical managers who sell smoke”

The Italian national team was again eliminated from a World Cup and will be at least twelve years without participating in the top football event. Former attacker Bruno Giordano, who was part of that “Magic” striker (For Maradona, Giordano and Careca) who marked a period at Napoli in the 1980s, and who wore the national team shirt 58 times (with 35 goals) spoke exclusively with Infobae about the “azzurri” crisis, and what he thinks should happen in the future.

— What do you think happens to make the Italian national team stay out of the final phase of a World Cup again?

“It's really unfortunate, but if I tell you it was a surprise, I would lie to you.

Why are you telling me this?

“Because I think it was something that was coming.

“But Italy just won a Euro Cup in London against England, and that wasn't even a year ago.

“It was an oasis, something that could happen in a month, things that happen because of the unpredictability of football and because coach Roberto Mancini managed to assemble the pieces and everything happened in a special way, but then things returned to a sad normal.

— What are you referring to? Could you be more specific, please?

—Italian local football has been neglected for a long time. Only thirty percent of the players in the league are Italians. The rest is all foreigners. I understand that we have to bring figures. That was already happening in the eighties, when Italy was the Mecca of world football, but now, it is exaggerated to bring players from abroad to replace ours and we were losing identity.

Are you referring to the Bosman Act of 1995?

“A little yes, but it's not all that law, which hurt Italy a lot because now every player with a European Community passport can play for any team in this area, and that means that many foreigners are sought, and to that add to that the non-EU players, even if there are quotas for that. But it also sells a lot of smoke...

- A lot of smoke? Who?

—Many coaches who go to the media, move cards, write on blackboards, talk very nice but it's all theory. It's all tactical system, movements from one side to the other, but technically they leave a lot to be desired. When it comes to the truth, they don't show on the court everything they apparently know. That is doing great damage to Italian football and not from now on.

“Since when do you think the problem is coming?

—At least, since the last world title was won in Germany in 2006. After that, note that Italy no longer appeared in the elite since South Africa 2010. He didn't make it through the first round either there or in Brazil 2014 and he didn't go to Russia 2018 and he won't go to Qatar 2022 either. In other words, in the most positive case it would be to return in 2026, they will be twenty years away from the football elite when it comes to a team with four world titles and a major role in the history of the competition. And if it takes the clubs, since Juventus won the Champions League in 1996 until now, it is 26 years old with just three European cups.

—It seemed at last year's Euro Cup, that the Italian national team was trying to change towards a more creative game, something that already happens with some of their teams such as Sassuolo, Atalanta de Gasperini, Fiorentina. Isn't it good to finally get out of the “Catenaccio” (Bolt) of the past, which characterized the Italian teams, with an effective but mean game for the show?

“Look, I'm going to tell you something, and I was a striker: I wish the Catenaccio would come back, even if it was! But they don't even know because of these theoretical coaches that in practice they can't capture everything they talk about!

- You say that a coach like Marcello Lippi, who won the world champion in Italy in 2006, or Juventus de Europa in 996, did not leave any disciples?

“I don't think... that generation of the Lippi, the Fabio Capello, is gone today. The few who follow that line, Carlo Ancelotti (now in Real Madrid) or Massimiliano Allegri (Juventus) are resisted, looking for people who sweeten their speech, who sell in the media.

— And Mancini, the current coach of the Italian national team? Because it had a resounding success in 2021, like winning the European Championship, and a very big failure now, not qualifying for the World Cup...

“I think Mancini should continue. He did a good job for the European Championship and showed that he can find a way to play, but I imagine that it will be difficult for him to keep up with the pressures that will be. I have my doubts that he has the possibility of continued work.

“And then? Who can be the technical director of the Italian national team in the next stage?

—Fabio Cannavaro. He was key when he won the 2006 World Cup, he is a great figure who won the Golden Ball, he is respected by all. Perhaps he is an agglutinating figure that allows him to work quietly, but if he does not deepen the technique and improve the situation of Italian players and coaches in Serie A, we will continue to suffer as is happening now.

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