Antonio Conte warned “it will be difficult for Italy to be competitive” if foreign players continue to dominate Serie A.
The Azzurri Coach spoke to reporters in Rome today and said his job is increasingly tough.
“My worry ahead of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup is how much things have changed since 2006, when Marcello Lippi won the World Cup,” said Conte.
“Back then an Italy Coach had the possibility of choosing around 61-62 Italians from every 100 players. Today that choice has dropped to 33 Italians out of 100.
Antonio Conte warned “it will be difficult for Italy to be competitive” if foreign players continue to dominate Serie A.
The Azzurri Coach spoke to reporters in Rome today and said his job is increasingly tough.
“My worry ahead of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup is how much things have changed since 2006, when Marcello Lippi won the World Cup,” said Conte.
“Back then an Italy Coach had the possibility of choosing around 61-62 Italians from every 100 players. Today that choice has dropped to 33 Italians out of 100.
“This is a real problem and the biggest danger facing Italy today. It will be difficult for Italy to be competitive if we can only pick 33 per cent of the available players. Those figures mean there is a problem and we have to invert the trend.
“Above all in attack the statistics show we have fewer strikers coming through to the Italy squad even at youth level. We’re really struggling there.”
This is why Conte called up a series of Oriundi – South American players of Italian descent – to fill those gaps, including Eder and Franco Vazquez.