Italy – Page 4 – FOOTBALL IS COMING HOME

The end of an era for Italy

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Italy is a country ruled by old men (over 50). The economy, the government, and, yes, the football system too. This gerontocratic culture of power is crucial to understanding why the Azzurri performed so horribly in the Confederations Cup in South Africa.

Aging world champions like Cannavaro (age 35), Toni (32), Zambrotta (32), Camoranesi (32), and Gattuso (31) lacked the enterprise, motivation, and physical attributes necessary to compete at this level. New blood is badly needed. But only New Jersey-born Giuseppe Rossi (22) was given enough playing time. Compare this inclination to avoid youthful vigor and imagination to the story of Lionel Messi — a regular for Barcelona and Argentina since age 17 and 18 respectively.

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Mario Balotelli is only 18 years old and already a key player for Inter Milan in Serie A. He’s been at Inter for 3 seasons now and is a regular in Italy’s Under-21 team. And he can score great goals. Like the one against Sweden in the European U-21 Championship last Friday (above). Balotelli has not yet played in the Italian senior side, but that’s only a matter of time. Italy played with an ageing team in the Confederations Cup and its strikers, with the exception of Guiseppe Rossi, hardly found the back of the net (the US and Egypt scored more goals then the Italians in group play). So there’s bound to be changes with the World Cup in mind.

A complete player at such a young age, “Super Mario” is confident about his own abilities: he told Goal.com recently that “One day Christiano Ronaldo will ask for my shirt.” (Also watch Balotelli’s post-goal celebration, like in the video above.) Balotelli (whose parents are Ghanaian immigrants) also shrugs off racist Italian fans. One downside: he may have discipline problems: minutes after scoring the goal above, he was sent off for a rash challenge (though it can be argued the Swedish player is quite an actor).

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