Is soccer no longer Italy's best sport? The Azzurri face World Cup playoff amid others' success

ROME — While Italy’s sporting summer has been bathed in gold, the country’s most beloved game is staring at another winter of discontent. A record-breaking Winter Olympics medal haul, Kimi Antonelli’s history-making Formula One triumph at 19, a first-ever Six Nations victory over England, Jannik Sinner’s resurgence on the ATP tour and world titles in men’s and women’s volleyball have combined to create a feel-good moment from the Alps to the Adriatic. Even baseball and cricket, long considered fringe pastimes here, have posted milestone results.

Yet the four-time World Cup champion men’s soccer side risks extending a barren run that already feels interminable. To avoid missing a third consecutive World Cup, the Azzurri must defeat 69th-ranked Northern Ireland on Thursday in Bergamo and then prevail away to either Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina in next week’s playoff final. Failure would mean at least 16 years without playing a World Cup match, an unthinkable drought for a nation that lifted the trophy in 2006 and regards the tournament as its quadrennial carnival of unity.

“Sports are about cycles, but this one in soccer has gone on for too long,” Italy’s sports minister Andrea Abodi told La Stampa. “For generations of Italians, the World Cup was the time when the country came together and waved our flag. Our national spirit now extends beyond soccer, but it would still be nice to share those emotions with younger fans.”

Anyone under 15 has no living memory of Italy’s last World Cup appearance, a 2014 group-stage exit remembered largely for Luis Suarez biting defender Giorgio Chiellini. Since then the Azzurri have fallen at the playoff hurdle twice—against Sweden before Russia 2018 and against North Macedonia ahead of Qatar 2022.

The current qualifying campaign wobbled from the opening whistle, a 3-0 loss at Erling Haaland’s Norway costing coach Luciano Spalletti his job. Gennaro Gattuso, part of the 2006 title-winning squad, took charge and oversaw six straight wins before another defeat to Norway condemned Italy to second place in the group and another playoff route.

Ranked 13th globally, Italy will be a heavy favorite against a Northern Ireland side missing injured captain Conor Bradley and guided by Michael O’Neill, who is simultaneously managing Blackburn Rovers. Still, the memories of a 0-0 draw in Belfast three years ago—resulting in the European champions tumbling into the 2022 playoff cycle—serve as a cautionary tale.

Gattuso’s rescue project has relied on camaraderie more than cohesion. Unable to secure a training camp in the four months since Italy last played, the coach and delegation chief Gianluigi Buffon—Italy’s record 176-cap goalkeeper—toured the peninsula and visited players in London, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for morale-boosting dinners. Buffon, along with 2006 teammates Gianluca Zambrotta and Simone Perrotta, is also embedded in the federation’s youth overhaul unveiled this week by president Gabriele Gravina, who warned that “extreme tacticalism” is stifling creativity.

Domestic football has mirrored the national slump. Serie A, once the magnet for the planet’s elite, now attracts fading stars from richer leagues, and no Italian club has conquered the Champions League since Inter Milan in 2010. Roberto Mancini’s European Championship triumph in 2021 briefly restored pride, yet his departure to Saudi Arabia weeks after failing to reach the 2022 World Cup left a vacuum Spalletti could not fill before a round-of-16 exit at Euro 2024.

Against this backdrop, Italy’s other sports have flourished by embracing evolution. Volleyball’s world-beating squads blend athleticism with tactical flexibility; Sinner’s aggressive baseline game reflects modern tennis; Antonelli’s fearless speed is the antithesis of conservative racing. Whether Gattuso’s Azzurri can absorb similar lessons will determine if the flag-waving ritual of a World Cup summer returns, or if Italy’s sporting affections continue to drift elsewhere.