Mario Balotelli knows why the Italian national team is at an all-time low - and he may be right

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FT Desk

Mario Balotelli has an interesting theory as to why the Italian national team finds itself at such a low point.

In March, after a playoff defeat against Bosnia & Herzegovina, the Azzurri failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third time in a row, and such a poor run has never happened before in the nation's history.

They've now missed Russia in 2018, Qatar in 2022 and the United States, Canada and Mexico in 2026.

Balotelli, who represented Italy at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, feels like children are not being exposed to as much time playing football as previous generations. When kids once played outside all day, every day, there is now a noticeable reduction in activity on public pitches.

"The problems, in my opinion, are very simple," he told the Guardian.

"I prefer to give practical explanations rather than technical ones, based on everyday life and what I see in Italy.

"When we were little, we played hours and hours of football. I remember my mum getting mad at me because I'd stay out until it was too dark to see the ball. They'd threaten you that you couldn't go out to play the next day.

"Now, when I walk around cities like Brescia, though I see it in other Italian cities too, the parks are empty. There's no one around.

"[...] A seven‑year-old kid today might play football for two hours every three days. We had the same structured training sessions, plus three hours of playing at the park every day, which felt like fun but was actually extra training. I truly believe talents were born on the street and in the parks.

"You played a lot, learned a lot, and tested yourself against older kids. If you were good, they didn't let you play with kids your age; they made you play with the older ones. Those were tests that served me well in the long run. Playing with people older than me has always been one of the most important things in my career."

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.