Disastro

One big news for Italian Football lovers is that Italy is out of world cup after missing it back in 2018. This would be the first time for the Azzurri to miss successive World Cups for the first time. The last time they missed out from World Cup was back in 1958 in Sweden. Since then they won the title twice (Spain 1982, Germany 2006) and twice as runners-up (Mexico 1970, USA 1994 both lost to Brazil)

In competitive one country could not afford to stand still while the rest of the world strive for improvement. This apocalypse of Italian football is ironically only a year after they were crowned as the champion of Europe. Hence the title of 'disastro' in some Italian sport newspapers is pretty appropriate. Newspapers stress a loss of identity, suggesting Italy have reverted to an older version of themselves; they have shown a lack of creativity, their most experienced players short of self-confidence.

Of course life goes on. Many nations never made to world cup ever but of course for them the world does not end as they know it. Football game could be addictive and for some could be treated as a form of religious ritual but I would argue that Jurgen Klopp comments would best summarizes what football is all about : 

“The most important job of football is entertaining the people. It’s only football. We don’t save lives, we don’t plant anything, create anything, are not good in surgeries. We only play football, so if we don’t entertain the people why would we play then? It’s not always possible, but it’s a really important thing. That’s why we have to try to create constantly, or as often as possible.”