Inter: The Lack of Italian Players

Inter Milan have dominated Italian football for the past few seasons. Yet one problem many Inter fans, Italian’s, and fans from all over the world, have with the four time consecutive Italian champions post Calciopoli is the lack of Italian players in the Inter squad. Under the reign of Roberto Mancini Inter were the first team in the history of Italian football the play a starting line up with no Italian players. In fact, when in charge of Juventus Fabio Capello famously said “Inter are a great team……….of Argentineans”.

There have been some Italian players in the Inter squad during the recent ‘glory years’, such as Materazzi and Toldo, and in the last couple of seasons Balotelli and Santon. However, these players have been more seen and used as squad players or prospects for the future rather than first team players, other than Materazzi who was a key component of the 2006/2007 scudetto winning team. In comparison to other Serie A rivals though, such as Milan, Juventus and Roma, Inter have been lacking far behind with regards to first team players who are Italian.

Therefore, why in recent years during Inter’s success has there been a lack of Italian players in the first team?

In 1908 Inter was founded with seemingly non-nationalist intentions, which many Inter fans are unaware of, with eight Swiss players in the squad. This went against the grain of the majority of Italian teams when they were first founded who made great efforts to be made up largely of Italian players. Nevertheless, this was not a reflection of Inter being founded on non-nationalist principals by favouring to sign foreign players over Italian players, it was more a reflection of signing the best players available to give Inter the best chance of success, and I feel Inter have stuck by these principals throughout the history of the club’s existence to this very day.

If the Inter management and directors, whoever they were at any given time in the club’s history, felt that signing certain Italian players would give Inter the best chance of success then they were signed. The Grande Inter team, during the presidential reign of Angelo Moratti and under the gifted management of Helenio Herrera, was largely Italian as these were the some of the best players around, such as Facchetti, Corso, Picchi, and Mazzola. A few decades later under the presidential reign of Angelo Moratti’s son Massimo, this tradition of signing top class Italian players to give Inter the best chance of success continued. During the 1990’s and 2000’s Inter signed a number of top class Italian players for large transfer fees, such as Toldo (£12 million), Vieri (£32 million, breaking the world transfer record at the time), Cannavaro (£14 million), Baggio, and Coco (in part exchange for the highly technical Seedorf). In fact, in the Italy squad for the 2002 Japan and South Korea World Cup there were more players from either Inter or Roma (both had five representatives each) than any other team, and Cannavaro and Coco signed for Inter a few weeks after the tournament.

The biggest reason I feel for why there have been hardly any Italian players in the Inter squad is recent years is simply because there have been very few attainable Italian players good enough to bring success to Inter. That is not to say that all Italian players are not good enough to play for Inter, just mainly the ones that are/were attainable. For example, the likes of Buffon, De Rossi, Del Piero, Totti, Zambrotta, Gattuso, Pirlo, Nesta, and Chiellini (the majority of which are an ageing generation) are all quality Italian players who at some point during the 2000’s could easily have played a significant role in the Inter starting line up, and if attainable I am sure Moratti and whoever our manager was at the time would have tried to sign some, if not most of them. A large number of them are World Cup winners after all, but they were/are not attainable.

It is the attainable Italian players in recent years who I feel have not been good enough for Inter to sign to start in the starting line up at least. Players such as Zaccardo, Barzagli, Montilivio, Gamberini, Rossi, Di Natale, Iaquinta, Maggio, Miccoli, Bonera, Palombo, Di Vaio, Esposito, Langella, Quagliarella, Dossena, P Cannavaro, D’Agostino, Pepe, Perrotta, De Silvestri, Marchionni, Lucarelli, Brighi, Bovo, and Aquilani. Being as objective as I can as an Inter fan I can honestly say the likes of Zaccardo or De Silvestri would no way have been as good a purchase as Maicon at right back, no way Barzagli or Bonera would have been as effective a centre back as Samuel or Lucio, no way Perrotta or Palombo would have been as a good a centre midfielder as Cambiasso or Stankovic, no way Montilivio or Aquilani would have been as good an attacking midfielder as Sneijder, and no way Rossi or Iaquinta would have got the goals or been as technical attuned as Ibrahimovic or Milito.

Yes, as an Italian team, especially as a big one, Inter has some responsibility to help the development of Italian players for the good of the national team, but not at the sacrifice of the club’s success, which is the primary importance. Sticking to the principals of Inter since the club’s foundations in 1908 Inter have signed foreign players over Italian players if it is in the best interests of the team’s success, and that is what has happened post Calciopoli, which is one the main reasons Inter have achieved so much success in recent years.

You only have to look at the Italian national team since the 2006 Germany World Cup success to realise that the majority of the current generation of Italian players are not good enough at the highest level. The core of the current Italian national team is still centred around the experienced and ageing generation of players who won the World Cup three and a half years ago. Buffon is still in goal, Zambrotta and Grosso are still the two wing backs, Pirlo, Gauttso and De Rossi are still in centre midfield, Camoranesi is still used on the wing and behind the strikers, and Lippi is almost certain to try and bring Totti and Nesta out of international retirement for the 2006 South Africa World Cup to provide some goal threat and a defensive partner for Cannavaro. A relatively minor part of the reason is because Lippi is stubbon and likes to stick to the ageing generation of players that have won him things previously, but the major part is because the current generation of Italian players are simply not good enough at the highest level. For example, Barzagli, in the prime of his career at the age of twenty eight is no where near on the same level as Cannavaro or Nesta were at that age. Same with Rossi, Gilardino and Pazzini compared to Del Piero, Totti and Vieri. I am by no means Lippi’s biggest fan, and in fact am one of his biggest critics, but he is a good manager, his not stupid, and he has won many important trophies during his career. He knows which players are good enough and which are not.

Having said that, there are a small number of attainable Italian players post Calciopoli that I feel have been/are good enough to play/played for Inter in the starting line up to bring success to the club. These were/are: Grosso, Toni, and Cassano.

Grosso was a quality left back who had a strong 2005/2006 season with Palermo and a stunning 2006 Germany World Cup. He played in a position Inter lacked any quality in, and unfortunately his only season with Inter was hampered by injuries, and for some reason which I still do not fully understand, Inter sold him after just one season.

Toni was a quality centre forward two to three years ago. He stayed in the penalty area, was strong, and was one of the most clinical strikers in the world with an eye for goal who was guaranteed to score with his equally dangerous head and feet. Admittedly, he is in the twilight of his career now, but in the summer of 2006 or 2007 he would have been an excellent signing for Inter and would have complemented Ibrahimovic perfectly. Fortunately for Inter fans a centre forward with very similar characteristics arrived in the summer of 2009 in the form of Milito, who has settled in perfectly with a very impressive goal scoring rate.

Cassano is not only one of the most technically gifted attacking Italian footballers today (who I would argue is on the same level as Totti, Del Piero, and Baggio in their prime), but also in the world. He has immense balance and dribbling ability allowing him to drift past the best defenders in the world with ease. He has the ability and genius to read the game, as well as the movements of team mates and opposing players ten passes in advance to change the tempo of the game in an instant and carve opponents open single handily with his accurately timed bursts of pace, or with his equally deadly vision and ability to provide the most perfect assist to a team mate from pretty much anyway in the opposition’s half. He is a opposition’s nightmare because he can be that dangerous. Watching Cassano on his day is witnessing attacking football at its finest.

However, there in lies one of the problems with Cassano, and why I feel Inter have not signed him; his inconsistent performances. When playing well Cassano is pretty much unplayable against. I do not think I am over praising him by saying he can be Maradona-esc, but he does not produce that form enough on a consistent basis (again, very Maradona-esc). I feel that is one of the major reasons why at the age of twenty seven, an age where a player should be in the prime of his career, is not starring for a major European club, such as Inter. The other obvious reason is because of his seemingly uncontrollable temperament, which his has lost control of at numerous different clubs (including two major European clubs in Roma and Real Madrid respectively) so many times that I have lost count. For those two reasons big European clubs feel signing him and building a team around him as their focal point is too much of a risk, and since his move to Real Madrid in 2003 no major European team has felt that such a risk is worth taking, despite his array of talents.

Therfore, where does this leave Inter and the future signings of Italian players, and the future of the Italian national team? I personally feel the future is not with the current generation of Italian players, who as I have said throughout the article are not good enough at the highest level for Inter to sign in their starting line up, or to play in the starting line up for the Italian national team, but with the new generation of Italian players. This maybe too cynical and I may be speaking too soon, but I do not believe that the majority of the current generation of Italian players are going to improve enough to be able to play in the starting line up for Inter or Italy. Both Inter and Italy need to turn to the next generation. Players such as Balotelli, Santon, Giovinco, Marchisio, Ariaudo, Marchetti, Cristico, Palladino, Bocchetti, Ranocchia, Okaka, Bonucci, and Santacroce. Obviously not all of these players will be attainable for Inter, and not all will develop into players who can perform at the highest level for club or country, but it is this generation of players that I feel Inter need to keep and eye on and possibly look towards as future signings, if attainable (fortunately Inter own Balotelli and Santon), and for Italy to turn to to replace the ageing generation that won the 2006 Germany World Cup.