Italian football finds itself at a crossroads. The national team has failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup for the third consecutive time, something unprecedented in the country’s football history. While much of the football world is focused on the tournament itself, attention in Italy has turned towards the presidential election of the National Federation (FIGC).
Following the resignation of Gabriele Gravina, the FIGC will elect a new president on 22 June 2026. The election pits former Italian National Olympic Committee president Giovanni Malagò, who oversaw a successful period for Italian sport that included a record 40 medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the awarding of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, against Giancarlo Abete, who previously led the FIGC between 2007 and 2014.
Given recent history, it is evident that, to address the current challenges facing football in Italy, wide structural changes are required. However, among the many issues under discussion, one topic sits clearly at the centre of the debate: the need for a sustainable talent development system.
This article examines the current state of Italy’s player development system, identifying aspects where the country lags behind a group of comparable European peers (England, Spain, France, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands and Belgium) and highlighting potential areas for improvement. The analysis traces the pathway from youth national team performance and talent production, through domestic and international playing opportunities, to the resulting composition and quality of Italy’s senior national team squad.
Talent pool on par with peer countries
A country's talent development framework can be broadly broken down into three main areas: 1) recruitment and talent pool, 2) training and competition, and 3) playing opportunities in professional football.
Recruitment and talent pool relates to the volume of youth talent available to academies and professional clubs. Training and competition encompasses coaching, methodologies, game models and the overall player development strategy of a system. Finally, playing opportunities in professional football concern the volume and quality of opportunities afforded to young players as they transition from youth football into the senior game.
Challenges have been identified especially across the second and third area in Italian football, although playing opportunities for young players have received the greatest attention in recent years.
Following his resignation, Gravina linked the national team's difficulties to a series of structural weaknesses, including the low presence of Italian players in Serie A, insufficient minutes for national-team-eligible U21 players, limited investment in academies, outdated infrastructure and the fragile financial position of clubs. Yet many of these concerns are far from new. Following Italy's elimination from the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Roberto Baggio, then president of the FIGC technical sector, identified several of the same issues. More than 15 years later, the similarities between the two assessments are striking.
To evaluate the strength of the underlying talent pool, we analysed the performance of youth national teams across major UEFA and FIFA competitions at U17, U19, U20 and U21 level since 2014, covering 39 tournaments.
Italy, alongside France, has qualified for more of these competitions than any other nation in the benchmark group, with 28 total appearances. This includes 9 out of 10 FIFA U20 and U17 World Cup participations.
The country has also performed strongly once there, progressing from the group stage 20 times, reaching eight finals and winning three tournaments. Importantly, this success has not been confined to a single generation but has been balanced over the analysed timeframe. Less than two weeks ago, Italy even lifted the 2026 U17 EUROs after beating Belgium in the final.
While youth national team performance is only one indicator, the evidence seems to suggests that Italy continues to produce a sufficient talent pool of professional players. Although improvements may still be possible in areas such as regional talent identification structures and youth competition formats, the player base at the early stages of the pathway does not appear to be the primary issue.
There have also been signs of progress in training and competition models in recent years. For example, several Italian clubs have invested in the establishment of "B" teams, recognising the importance of creating a stronger bridge between academy football and the professional game. Juventus Next Gen pioneered the model in 2018, providing a professional environment in Serie C for players transitioning from the Primavera to senior football. Other clubs have since followed, acknowledging that competitive professional minutes, even at a lower level, offer a fundamentally different developmental experience from youth football.
Overview of domestic playing time opportunities for young Italian talent
The discussion therefore turns to playing opportunities in professional football, arguably the most critical stage of any talent development pathway.
Both the volume and quality of opportunities matter. Young players develop most effectively when they are regularly exposed to highly competitive environments as they transition into senior football. As a result, this analysis focuses first on domestic first divisions and then on UEFA club competitions: the highest quality playing opportunities available at club level.
Over the past six seasons, Italian U21 players have never accumulated more than 50,000 combined Serie A minutes in a single season, nor accounted for more than 6% of total league minutes.
Although there was an upward trend between 2020/21 and 2023/24, much of the increase can be attributed to a limited number of players receiving substantial opportunities, including Giorgio Scalvini, Matteo Ruggeri, and Riccardo Calafiori, rather than a broader structural shift.
After a temporary increase, figures have fallen to pre-2021/22 levels over the last two seasons. The ratio of domestic U21 players in Serie A is currently below 4%, while 2025/26 also saw a record low: 37 such players received opportunities, with only 14 receiving more than 1,000 minutes. This suggests a narrowing pathway at the top.
At the same time, average minutes per player have never been higher than in 2025/26 (869). Fewer U21 players are getting in, but those who play demonstrate young players' ability to transition into first team football, with Marco Palestra (Cagliari, on loan from Atalanta), Samuele Angori (Pisa) and Davide Bartesaghi (AC Milan) among the most notable examples.
The international context reveals a significant gap to other leading nations
Compared with the seven benchmark countries, Serie A ranks joint bottom alongside the Premier League for the share of minutes played by domestic U21 players, at 3.9%.
The Dutch Eredivisie, French Ligue 1 and Belgian Pro League all provide substantially greater opportunities. While these leagues are often characterised as talent-exporting competitions built around developing young players, Serie A also trails the Bundesliga and La Liga, demonstrating that stronger domestic youth representation is possible without fundamentally altering the league's competitive model.
Even in comparison with England, Italy’s position is more nuanced. While there is a lack of domestic U21 playing time in the Premier League, English youngsters are playing almost double the minutes (15,291) of their Italian counterparts (8,619) in non-domestic first-division leagues within our analysis scope.
The weighted average age of players in Serie A further reinforces the picture, with the league ranking as one of the oldest in the sample. Overall, the data suggests that young Italian players are receiving fewer opportunities at the highest level than their peers.
Foreign players blocking the pathway?
The limited playing opportunities afforded to domestic U21 players naturally raise questions about the factors behind this trend. To assess this, we analysed the distribution of playing minutes by both age and nationality, examining the role foreign players play in shaping opportunities for domestic talent.
Serie A ranks towards the bottom of the benchmark group, with domestic players accounting for just 30.6% of total league minutes. Only the Premier League and the Primeira Liga record lower shares.
The picture is similar among younger players. Domestic U21 footballers account for just 3.9% of all Serie A minutes, compared with 8.2% for foreign U21 players. In other words, young foreign players receive more than twice as many opportunities as their Italian counterparts.
The challenge is therefore not simply one of trusting young players. Opportunities are being provided to young footballers but a disproportionate share of those opportunities is being allocated to foreign talent at the moment.
The contrast with leagues such as the Eredivisie and La Liga is particularly notable. In both competitions, domestic players account for the majority of total playing time and also receive a much greater share of youth minutes. La Liga provides an especially interesting comparison. While overall U21 playing time is lower than in Serie A (10.1% vs 12.2%), domestic players receive a much larger share of total minutes across all age groups, balancing the structural differences in age.
Limited access to elite-quality playing opportunities
While Serie A provides a high-level competitive environment, exposure to UEFA club competitions has been more limited for Italian players than for many of their peers.
Italy ranks second-to-last in this sample for total UEFA club competition minutes by nationality, ahead of only Belgium and with less than half the total recorded by Spain. While this analysis includes players of all ages, the gap in representation is evident.
Adjusting for the number of participating clubs makes the picture even more striking. On a per-club basis, Italy generates fewer European minutes than any other nation in the comparison.
As UEFA club competitions provide some of the highest-quality playing opportunities in world football, this further highlights the limited exposure Italian players receive at the elite level.
Eroding national team competitiveness a consequence of talent development challenges
Ultimately, the performance of the senior national team is closely linked to the level of talent available for selection. Italy's recent struggles are no exception.
When analysing players who have not yet turned 26 within current national team squads, Italy once again ranks towards the lower end of the benchmark group. The volume of young talent is the lowest in the sample, with only eight players below the age of 26, level only with Portugal.
The quality profile of those players also trails several peers. In Germany, Belgium, and England, more than 65% of total squad value is represented by players under the age of 26. In Italy, the equivalent figure is approximately one-third.
Additionally, the average value of an Italian player under 26 is less than half that of a comparable player in Spain or France, highlighting the relative shortage of high-end young talent available to the national team.
The pathway, not the talent pool, is the challenge
Italy's challenge is not primarily the size of its talent pool but rather the ability of its development system to maximise the potential of that talent as players progress through the later stages of the pathway and transition into professional football.
Youth national team results suggest that Italy continues to produce promising generations of players. However, compared to peer countries, playing opportunities for young players in both Serie A and UEFA club competitions remain limited. Serie A provides comparatively few minutes for domestic U21 players, while the pathway between academy football and elite competition remains relatively narrow. In addition, the high share of foreign players and relatively low levels of player export can further restrict opportunities to accumulate valuable professional experience.
Addressing these challenges will require time. However, international examples such as England and Spain demonstrate that strong domestic player development and high-level competitiveness can coexist. Positive outcomes in talent development can also create a virtuous cycle for club football, particularly given the growing strategic and financial value of developing young players.
For Italian football, the priority is therefore not necessarily to produce more talent but to create an environment in which more of that talent can successfully make the transition to the highest levels of the game.
As the strategic importance of youth development continues to grow, understanding the effectiveness of talent pathways has become a key priority across the football industry. Through our youth football specialist advisory services, we support clubs, leagues, federations and investors in monitoring, analysing and benchmarking youth development performance across leagues worldwide. Combining detailed insights on academy productivity, player progression, playing time opportunities, debut and transition pathways, financial value creation, and long-term development outcomes, our platform enables stakeholders to assess the effectiveness of their talent development systems and benchmark performance against domestic and international peers. Complemented by tailored advisory services, including academy diagnostic reviews, youth performance reports, and strategic development projects, we help organisations translate data-driven insights into actions that strengthen both sporting performance and long-term value creation.
