Gianluigi Donnarumma is one among two Italy stars with 82 caps however not a World Cup finals look between them.
Donnarumma and Nicolo Barella suffered their third World Cup heartache on Tuesday night time when the Azzurri didn’t qualify for the finals this summer time.
Not since 2014 have the four-time winners been to a finals, having made an almighty balls-up of three qualification campaigns on the bounce, regardless of profitable a European Championships within the meantime.
Right here is the most effective Italy XI, with a median of 52 caps, that haven’t but and will by no means play in a World Cup finals…
GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma
The poster boy for Italy’s World Cup failure, not as a result of he’s significantly culpable, however Donnarumma is likely one of the few genuinely world-class skills the Azzurri has produced of late. And he’s been concerned in all three current failures to qualify on the way in which to amassing 82 caps.
Nonetheless, the Manchester Metropolis stopper will solely be 31 by the point 2030 rolls round. It’s not inconceivable that Donnarumma may nonetheless play in two World Cup finals tournaments. Assuming Italy ever get their s*** collectively.
RB: Alessandro Florenzi
Florenzi, who succeeded Francesco Totti as Roma captain, performed for Italy for a decade from 2012 and was unlucky to overlook out on choice by Cesare Prandelli for the 2014 World Cup.
‘Irrespective of, there can be different probabilities’, he presumably thought as a 23-year-old. One other 45 caps adopted by to 2022 however none at a World Cup finals.
CB: Giovanni Di Lorenzo
The 53-cap Napoli defender, right here taking part in inside his regular place, is presently sidelined by damage however him and Guglielmo Vicario travelled to Bosnia with the squad anyway, presumably in anticipation of a qualification occasion; however Di Lorenzo walked right into a one other wake.
CB: Alessandro Bastoni
Like Donnarumma, Bastoni is taken into account top-of-the-line on the planet in his place and, equally, the 26-year-old would possibly but play at a finals. However the Inter defender, not too long ago linked with Barcelona, capped a poor season by his personal requirements with the crimson card in Bosnia that many in Italy are blaming for this newest nationwide disgrace.
LB: Federico Dimarco
The Inter full-back has fluffed two qualification campaigns now and his response to Bosnia beating Wales solely added gas to the hosts’ hearth in Zenica on Tuesday night time. Age 28, Dimarco would have been going to america in his prime. Now he’s beach-bound once more.
MF: Jorginho
“It can hang-out me for the remainder of my life. Stepping up there twice and never with the ability to assist your staff and your nation is one thing that I’ll carry with me without end, and it weighs on me.”
That was the 57-cap midfielder after his second failure to get Italy to a World Cup finals in 2022. However distress loves firm and Jorginho has loads of that now.
MF: Sandro Tonali
Some comfort for the Newcastle midfielder: he was one among only a few to flee a shoeing within the Italian press within the wake of the Bosnia debacle. And now his agent has all summer time to kind out the transfer he’s been angling for.
MORE: Tonali, Szoboszlai, Osimhen: Most useful XI not going to the 2026 World Cup
MF: Nicolo Barella
The Inter midfielder, capped 82 occasions, has been concerned in three qualification failures, although he’ll level to the truth that he solely had a watching transient from the bench when Italy made a b*llocks of it for the 2018 event.
FWD: Federico Chiesa
Maybe Chiesa knew what was coming as a result of not like the opposite injured gamers who caught across the camp for these qualification play-offs, the Liverpool winger was away as quickly because it grew to become clear he wouldn’t be making his first Azzurri look since Euro 2024. Gennaro Gattuso didn’t sound impressed.
“He had some minor points and we determined that it was ineffective for him to remain… not each participant has the identical way of thinking. Once I hear that somebody is wavering that’s once I know I want to choose. We determined it collectively. He felt he wasn’t as much as it and he went dwelling. I want to simply accept it.”
FWD: Giacomo Raspadori
Maybe a part of Italy’s failures may be put right down to the absence of a very top-class centre-forward during the last decade of so. Raspadori, again in Serie A since January after flopping at Atletico Madrid, is approaching 50 caps however solely as soon as has the 26-year-old received into double figures for league targets.
FWD: Federico Bernardeschi
The ex-Juventus winger was known as as much as the Italy squad across the 2014 World Cup as a part of a programme to push the following technology. Evidently, it didn’t work. Bernardeschi was a part of two qualification failures however, now at Bologna, he has been out of the Azzurri image since his thirty ninth and remaining cap in 2022.
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