“Since 2010, with Sacchi and Viscidi, we have worked on the youth national teams. The results in 15 years are clear”, Albertini then admits
“One match is not the absolute, and even if yesterday Spain outclassed Italy I am convinced that the real difference is not that. But it will mean something if Spain has a sporting project and after so many years we are still talking about the second teams; if Yamal at 16 has 38 appearances for Barcelona who started the season to win the Champions League and our boys, champions of Europe U.17 or U.19, don’t find space or play to avoid relegation…How always, we talk about young people and we don’t value them.” Demetrio Albertini, now president of the FIGC technical sector, has great football, the blue and also Spain, in his DNA. He studied every step of that “football project”, given the ties as former players of Atletico and Barcelona, with whom he won a championship. “Spain – Albertini tells ANSA – were superior in terms of overall quality, and prevented us from leaving midfield. Spain interpreted their philosophy in the best possible way, Italy is no longer defensive. But I don’t think that the real difference between the two movements is that of yesterday, absolutely”.
However, to use the joke that circulated in the Azzurri locker room after the Euro 2000 semi-final against the Netherlands, which was also a siege immediately but then won on penalties, “we closed them in our half of the pitch and never let them out again.. .”. On the other hand, Albertini says, “we knew about the greater quality of de la Fuente’s national team: we just knew where their national teams play, how many in the clubs start the season to win the Champions League and how many in Italy: the difference is objective educational level. Let’s talk about Yamal, Williams, Pedri and their age: but let’s look carefully at how many young players they have in Barcelona, in Atletico, in Real Italia, however, the internal market is blocked: I would say not to discount a young Italian the foreign hypothesis”.
The issue of young people is dear to Albertini and the entire FIGC. “Spain has a long-term sporting project – he underlines – I heard the story of Fabian Ruiz yesterday: he ‘disappeared’ with Luis Enrique, recalled by de la Fuente who had him in the youth team. It is the sign of a path that continues” . It’s Italy? “Since 2010, with Sacchi and Viscidi, we have worked on the youth national teams. The results in 15 years are clear: we have risen dramatically in the youth rankings, we have played in five finals, winning two, the U.17 and U.19 European Championships. We are runners-up of the U.20 world. The cliché that Italy has neither talents nor teachers is quickly disproved”.
Then, there’s the aftermath. “I played and won with the three Dutchmen, with Weah and Savicevic – recalls Albertini -, far be it from me to be against foreigners: but it is an objective fact that there are fewer and fewer Italian players, or rather those who can be called up, used in the championships. As also – he concludes – that many foreigners play to whom ours have nothing to envy; yet the EU rules are the same, here and in Spain. It is true that no one can force a private entrepreneur to buy a player or not, but no one is stopping him from letting a talented Italian play, he has made the most of his team.”
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
