That is the lowest total of any major footballing power and has stood for nearly 50 years. From a country that has produced Rossi, Baggi, Del Piero, Vieri et all that blows my mind… Wow.
Italy and its league has always been more defensive. They were known for their defense. I guess that’s why.
But still, 35 goals back in the 60s & 70s, you’d think someone broke it since, even playing a bit defensive.
And interestingly, the second is Meazza, in the 30s, and the third is Piola in the 30s and 40s.
This is kind of mind blowing.
Rombo di tuono Legend, he won scudetto with Cagliari
Totally surprising, also just Googled Immobile and he has only scored 17 goals for Italy. I mean they haven’t been at their best lately (except for 2021), but hasn’t Immobile been their starting striker for almost a decade now? The guy has had many club seasons with 20+ league goals.
Not a decade at all and he’s kind of known to be not very good for Italy
Immobile didn’t start for Italy until qualifying for '18 WC our strikers for Euro 16 were Graziano Pele and Eder.
Yikes what a sorry bunch of strikers.
TBF Immobile has always been rubbish outside Italy.
Very much a symptom of the more defensive nature of Italian football particularly through the 90s - In 93/94 AC Milan won the league scoring just 36 goals in a 34 game season.
Also all of the most capped outfield players for Italy are defenders and defensive midfielders. And if you look at the caps of Italy’s all time top scorers only Del Pierro has more than 64 caps with the rest mostly around the 30-60 cap range so you wouldn’t expect many to get 35+ goals
Defensive mentality is probably the biggest factor, as many have said.
Also, the abundance of great attacking players (particularly 10s) in the ‘90s and ‘00s meant that no player was really nailed into the starting XI.
Across that time period, some of the 10s have been Baggio, Zola, Mancini, Del Piero, Totti, Cassano, etc all sharing playing time at some point or another.
The early ‘90s saw some pretty good striker alternate for Italy up front, but I feel like none of them was generational.
The mid-to-late 90s saw the emergence of Vieri and Inzaghi, although they often had to coexist and share playing time, and therefore goals. Additionally, both of them have had much shorter international careers (49 and 57 caps) compared to strikers from other countries.
Balotelli was the new big thing in the early ‘10s, he was touted as the Italian top striker of the generation, destined to break Riva’s record, etc but we all know how that went.
And then generally after him, there hasn’t really been much quality. Immobile, Pellé, Zaza, Belotti, etc have all alternated with pretty disappointing results.
Also useful to know that Italy use their youth teams properly. I remember when Rooney and Cassano were seen as relatively similar players back in the day. Check both of their youth intl records - Cassano 30+ youth intl games, Rooney 1 after under 17s then straight into the main team. In short Italy do not tend to rush in strikers and subsequently someone like Vieri only played 49 games (debut around 22-23). Compare that to say Michael Owen who had played 3 tournaments by 22, they do not get to pad their stats early on
That goal against Argentina is “padding stats”? The hat trick against Germany? Wash your mouth out.
Immobile should have been leading scorer.
And if he gets there I don’t see anyone moving him.
And if he gets there I don’t see anyone moving him.
If he could do in national team what he does in club. But in national team he is not the same player.
That’s one less than David Healy has scored for Northern Ireland.
There are six English players who’ve scored more. Kane should get to 70 soon
Most records have been set in the last decade or so and all Italys strikers have been utter shit since 2006.
Mum sure they’ll have someone break through up front at some point in the next 10 years and break the record.
Maybe the number of great strikers hurts their totals. With some countries they have to stick with players for a long time, if you have a glut of talent you will change more often
Playing with 442 means that the 2 strikers are going to share the number of goals, while in a 433 the centre forward is going to score usually more than the wingers (Look at Kane for comparison). Add the missed world cup qualification of 1958, 2018, 2022. Add the missed qualification of the European Championship of 1972, 1976, 1984, 1992. Add that in several occasions when Italy went far into the competition certain crucial games were decided by penalty shootouts that don’t count as goal scored. In the '90s and '00s there was an abundance of great strikers, competing against each other and resulting in fewer goals for each one, while in the '10s and especially the '20s there was and there is a crisis with very few strikers available.
Gigi Riva 35 goal-42 caps…… nothing else to add, simply the best….
Italy are just that team that grease their way to the final and pull it off. They’re never really feared or regarded as the best in the world at any one time. The most jammiest footballing nation of all time.
English? 😉 Edit: just found out he is ☠️
maybe another factor is their trust in young players
Are you suggesting that they trust players too young and they never fulfil the potential or that they trust younger players and cast aside older ones?
they always seem to lean on the old gaurd rather than taking a chance on youth.
inzaghi was 25 and vieiri 24 when they made their debuts for example
only one i can think of of any note is baggio who was a teen debutant