Leonardo Bonucci’s latest interview has sparked a debate on Italian youths, with Il Corriere dello Sport writing that the Juventus defender wants ‘experienced young players.’
Bonucci released an interview with DAZN on Monday, going through Juventus’ highs and lows in the current campaign.
The Bianconeri have earned a top-four finish with three games to spare but have never been credible title contenders and were eliminated from the Champions League Round of 16 at the hands of Villarreal. Bonucci partially blamed Juventus’ youths and their lack of experience.
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“We must improve in everything and sometimes we pay a high price for lacking experience,” he said.
“It happens when you have many young players, but we have the basis for building something important.”
His claims have sparked a debate among Juventus fans on social media and Il Corriere dello Sport journalist Roberto Perrone offered his view on Bonucci’s words in a column published in today’s edition.
‘Everyone talks about the youths, but they are never allowed to talk. What would they say, for example, about Bonucci’s claims? We’ll never know because none of them will be given a chance to reply,’ wrote Perrone.
‘We mention young players only when our movement suffers huge blows, like the second consecutive elimination from the World Cup, blaming Mancio [Roberto Mancini] for not deploying them in place of a tired (?) old guard.
‘We cry over the state of youth sectors, but then we defend the growth decree, which allows buying players from abroad, especially foreign ones.
‘The young player must immediately offer convincing answers. Surely in football. If they miss the entrance, it’s pain for them and they are hardly allowed to try again. We want, and Bonucci says it between the lines, experienced youths. We want old youths. Italian football is not for young players.’
Bonucci scored a brace in Juventus’ 2-1 win over Venezia on Sunday, allowing the Old Lady to secure a top-four finish following Roma‘s 0-0 draw against Bologna later in the day. The Italy international has scored five goals this season and his contract at the Allianz Stadium expires in June 2024.
I cannot see where the problem is in that we do have a very good youth system. For example the U15 have just won the competition by winning against Chile 3 nil, 4 – 2 against England, 2 -1 against USA and 3 – 0 against the Cech Republic and all the others are doing just as good. It is only a Club problem. For some unknown reason, they do allow the youngsters to get experience. What annoys me even more is that often big clubs buy the promising young star and then leave them on the bench! Just does not make sense. We all know that by playing we will get better in football so please CLUBS, just allow these promising players to get better and please do not punish them as soon as they make a mistake.
Italy sucks and Italians are too old and stuck in the past.
Experience Youths??? How can young players get experience when the are rarely selected for 1st team or when they are the have an average or poor game and are dropped and not played again. This is to the detriment of Italian football.
He hit alot of good points but like he said it’s only when something happens then it goes away. Someone needs to stand up and take this issue on maybe mancio. I think its politics and can only go so far but also the team owners r the main ones to blame because of the $$$$ they make on foreign players vs homegrown. They push the growth decree as we speak they want to go further in foreign player rule.
You only get experienced youth by playing the youth, if you don’t play the youth then you won’t get the experience. Club football in Serie A is to blame. Club football is looking for immediate results, quick fixes, maximum amount of output for minimum effort. I hope serie A clubs come right by playing more Italians, how can you have an Italian club with no Italians playing. The last time Inter won the champions league not 1 italian started the game.
@ Carlo
Yes and if you remember Mialn in 2007 won Champions League with 7 italians starting. All these clubs now are obessed with foreign players but they have all failed in the last 10 years
Bonucci wants to be a coach in the future according to his wife and having been around Allegri for too long bad advice and intentions are already forming in his mind.
The problem with top clubs is that it’s very difficult to bring young, inexperienced players when you have to get the results straight away. The problem in Italy (and not only there) is that the minor clubs use too many foreign players and the younger players don’t get opportunities there also.
If Jorginho would have scored 2 penalties against Switzerland no one would have discussed about youth etc.
WC miss should not happen and we should aim to qualify in group stages and not playoffs.
Hopeful to see Italy winning the WC by 2026
Only way for SA to play youths is you have to force them like some sort of law, decree, throw out the growth decree and replace with the youth decree, let’s call it that the Youth Decree.
@ dave
Yes, the glory years of serie A is gone, when they were dominating it was largely Italians that were playing with a few yet good quality foreigners. The core of the serie A clubs should always be italian. There should be a system in place that promotes young Italians to play. Even Lippi mentioned he had a big group to select from about higher than 60% was italian, now it’s half that.
Too many young players? More like not enough! Morata is old and slow. He lacks urgency.
Arthur, Bernardeschi, Rabiot have experience but they are awful.
Sandro is a very experienced Left back and is dreadful. The young Italian (Pelegrini) is average, but much better than him.
The team needs energy, speed, creativity and aggression>> so MORE young players.
BAGGIO had the right ideas for this “youth” debate issue! Unfortunately the Italian FA etc etc only used him as a PR stunt! Why they hired the legend in the first place only to pour cold water over his ideas and dossier is anyone’s guess! Which is why he walked away
del piero has said “italian football lost its power in world football “. indeed it has, and there’s no sign of improvement whatsoever. it is a very very sad story! the youth system in france, portugal, spain, england and germany a very successful one, however in italy quite the contrary! italy used to provide best of the best then them young talents integrated with professional football. for all the big clubs without exemptions to bring an old foreign useless fart much better than to invest in young players. what a shame!