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Home , Andrea Pirlo, Cesare Prandelli, Lorenzo Insigne, Luciano Spalletti

FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 2014 43

Italian club crisis hits national team

MANGARATIBA: No , no president, no forwards and no Balotelli doesn’t fulfil his undoubted potential, the likes of Norway, so a temporary replacement at the very least needs to be place in the World Cup knock-out rounds, the question is, where Immobile, Napoli’s or ’s Stephan El Sharawy found. The one bright spot for is young midfield do Italy go from here? Right now, the common feeling is that have yet to provide conclusive proof they are the future of Italy’s who looked every bit an international player in this, Italian football is in crisis. This had long been the case in the club attacking line. Perhaps Balotelli will never come good, certainly the his first, major tournament. It is perhaps telling, though, that he game but at least the national team could on occasions relieve the path has never been easy. His brushes with disciplinary bodies doesn’t even play in Italy, having been seduced by the big bucks on gloom, such as when they reached the Euro 2012 final, albeit only aside, there is a section of Italy’s support that has never warmed to offer at Saint-Germain. His importance will grow even more to be dismantled 4-0 by Spain. That is no longer the case after a the son of Ghanaian immigrants. On Wednesday Balotelli posted a should veteran retire from the international scene, as is second successive World Cup group stage elimination. passionate response on his social media instagram page to a video widely expected. His loss would be a huge blow, as would that of 36 Italy may have breezed unbeaten through their qualification by an Italian telling him to get away from the national team, accus- year-old goalkeeper and captain . That pair are still group to reach Brazil, securing their place with two games to spare, ing his detractors of being “racists”. often Italy’s best performers and talents of their ilk are not easily but such small mercies will do little to appease fans of a country In any case, Balotelli is suspended for Italy’s first Euro qualifier in found, let alone replaced. The future really does look bleak.— AFP used to success-they are after all four-time world champions, a record bettered only by Brazil. Apart from ’s Jose Mourinho-inspired Champions League triumph in 2010, Italian teams have struggled in Europe. Since AC Milan won the competi- tion in 2007, Inter’s victory is the only occasion an Italian side has gone beyond the quarter-finals. Several times, they haven’t even made it there. Last season, Milan were the only ones to make it out of their group, although they were subsequently crushed 5-1 on aggre- gate by Atletico . In 2012 Italy also lost their fourth place in the Champions League as Germany overtook them in the UEFA rankings. As for the national team, they came into this tournament ranked ninth in the world but their abject exit will likely see them drop several places. Following their failure at the last World Cup, they dropped six places and later that year, in October, dropped to their joint lowest ever ranking of 16 in the FIFA list. Depending on their results later in the year, they risk breaking that record. It is hardly the time to be left with no coach and no federation president following the resignations of and Giancarlo Abete after their 1-0 defeat to Uruguay on Tuesday. The immediate issue will be to replace Prandelli, with Italian media suggesting former Milan coach and current Galatasaray boss top the list. However, both are used to considerably higher salaries than the 1.7 million euros ($2.3m) Prandelli was receiving. Other potential targets could be former Roma and Zenit St Petersburg coach , former Palermo and Udinese boss or , who left the Japan post following his country’s elimination on Tuesday. Another issue to solve is Italy’s striking problem. They came into this tournament with only one established forward in 23-year-old . Despite scoring the winner against England he failed to have a positive impact against either Costa Rica or Uruguay, where Prandelli hauled him off at half-time. finished top scorer in last season after a fine campaign for Torino but he has yet to score for his country. He began his career at Juventus but made only three brief sub- stitute appearances before being forced into taking a step down. If

MILAN: Italy players (right) and Lorenzo Insigne carry their luggage upon their arrival with team- mates at Malpensa airport after landing from Brazil, in Milan, Italy yesterday. Italy was disqualified from the World Cup after losing to Uruguay in their group stage round. — AP