Insane World Cup stat highlights fall of Italian football as 100-year run ends

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FT Desk

Italian football is at a low ebb at the moment after the Azzurri failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third time in a row for the tournament in 2026.

At the playoff stage in March, they were defeated on penalties by Bosnia & Herzegovina.

They've now missed Russia in 2018, Qatar in 2022 and the United States, Canada and Mexico in 2026. Never before in the nation's history have they missed three in a row.

There are highly heralded Italian players, the likes of Gianluigi Donnarumma and Alessandro Bastoni, who have never played at the World Cup.

For a country with such a rich history in the tournament, the current malaise boggles the mind and one particular statistic that emerged over the last few days is one which sums up the current state of the Italian national team and Italian football as a whole.

Por primera vez en casi 100 años, la Serie A no tiene un solo jugador italiano que haya ido a un Mundial.

Vaya dato. https://t.co/GKkcAj58TP

— Francisco Quinzaños (@pacoquinzanos) August 28, 2026

This week, goalkeeper Mattia Perin completed a transfer from Juventus to Palermo in Serie B. It just so happens he was the only Italian player left in Serie A who had actually been to a World Cup tournament, having travelled to Brazil in 2014 with the squad.

Now that he's left, Serie A doesn't have a single Italian player who has played in a World Cup, which has ended a historic 100-year run of excellence.

Italy at the World Cup

Italy are one of the most successful teams in the history of the World Cup, having won the tournament four times, behind only Brazil's five titles. Their victories came in 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006. They have also finished runners-up twice, in 1970 and 1994, and finished third in 1990.

Their 1930s team dominated the early World Cup, winning consecutive tournaments in 1934 and 1938. Italy became the first nation to retain the World Cup, beating Czechoslovakia in the 1934 final before defeating Hungary 4–2 in the 1938 final.

After a long wait, Italy returned to the top in 1982. Paolo Rossi was the star of the tournament, including scoring a hat-trick against Brazil, before Italy defeated West Germany 3–1 in the final in Madrid.

The 1990 World Cup, hosted on home soil, saw the Azzurri reach the semi-finals only to lose to Argentina on penalties. They also reached the 1994 final, where Roberto Baggio's famous missed penalty helped Brazil win the trophy in another shootout.

Italy's most recent triumph came in 2006. They beat Germany in the semi-final and then defeated France on penalties in the final after a 1–1 draw. That final was famed for Zinedine Zidane's red card after headbutting Marco Materazzi on the chest.

Since then, however, Italy's World Cup record has declined dramatically. They went out in the group stage in 2010 and 2014 and failed to qualify for 2018, 2022 and 2026.