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| | Wednesday 6 August, 2008 | | Blog: Giovanni Foreigner | |
A quarter of all Serie A transfers this summer have involved foreigners, but James Horncastle thinks the Italian game will benefit rather than suffer
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Inter’s Argentine striker Julio Ricardo Cruz is enjoying training with the Nerazzurri more than ever. Why? Because Coach Jose Mourinho has added football-tennis to Inter’s exercises. “He divides us into teams,” reveals Cruz. “An Argentine one and a Brazilian one. Imagine the rivalry!” Imagine the face of FIFA President Sepp Blatter, Julio.
For Blatter cites Inter along with Arsenal as one of Europe’s worst offenders when it comes to choosing foreign players over their domestic counterparts. It’s said Blatter came up with his 6+5 initiative after watching Inter-Juventus last year. For those unfamiliar with 6+5, it’s a plan to make all clubs field at least six footballers from their own country, a cap if you like, completely against the laws of the European Union. It would restrict movement, personal freedom and the currents of globalisation.
Not an ode to slavery then – we all know old Sepp’s against that – but a step back in time nonetheless. All this begs the question, is Italian football suffering from a 21st Century case of the yellow peril? Does Giovanni Foreigner have calcio over a barrel? The simple answer is not as much as elsewhere. Englishmen are outnumbered 60:40 in the EPL. England Coach Fabio Capello described his job as difficult for this very reason last month. In Italy, he said, it’s the opposite. The composition of Serie A is 64 per cent Italian and 36 per cent foreign.
Do these figures suggest Italian football is in rude health? Partly, yes, because its championship is predominantly Italian. The national team benefits and Italians themselves can still identify with the players that make up their teams. Roma fans are immensely proud that several of their club’s first team players are Roman born and bred.
But Italian clubs aren’t thought of as competitive. They don’t have the buying power EPL clubs enjoy. Spending money on players doesn’t necessarily guarantee success anyway as Italian clubs recently proved. They spent €82m on foreigners last summer and by January that investment had yielded 20 goals. That’s €4.1m a goal. A cap would, perhaps, focus clubs more. In the `80s only three foreigners were allowed per team. Italian clubs only bought a foreigner if he was right for the club. Now, they find it easier and more convenient to buy abroad.
A cap would be bad for Italian football. Foreigners bring ideas as well as skills that help improve the game. What Blatter should focus on is protecting clubs that nurture young players. Too many are helpless to prevent big clubs, namely Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United, tempting their promising home-grown youngsters away for little or no compensation. That creates a culture where the abandonment of youth development is the norm. Why waste time and money on a nursery when you can buy ready-made players cheaply from a place called abroad?
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I don't agree that the arrival of many foreigners this summer will be detrimental to the Italian League. Many foreign stars of the past – Cafu, Aldair, Rui Costa, Ronaldo & Batistuta – are being replaced (though not necessarily with equal quality yet) by the next wave of talented imports. Many of these, by no small coincidence, have arrived from the same clubs/countries as their past stars – with the technical ability and more importantly, non inflated transfer fees.
Unlike the Premiership, where the technical abilities of stars from Brazil, Argentina and other South American countries seems to always fail, Serie A in particular of all the other European Leagues, apart from Spain, seems to get the best out of them. Inter and Roma in my mind, particularly seem to sign South American players, whereas Juve (my supported team) tend to stick with mainly Italian players. This though now seems to be changing with last/this season’s arrivals from Portugal, Serbia, Denmark and Sweden.
The only worry is if the seasons to come sees mass invasion of foreign signings, as this will cause havoc in sides academy/home grown youth ranks and could damage the international side further down the line. Where the Italian League has got it right over the Premier League is by both having home players playing abroad – Cannavaro, Zambrotta & Miccoli, but also limiting foreigners and producing world class champion players.
Rob, Nottingham
Sorry James, totally disagree. Italian football has tradition. Amongst Italians, in Italy, Italian footballers are brought up with the calcio way of thinking – mental strength, technique and team play. This is part of the reason the Serie A is predominantly Italian made. Smart, technical football – the complete game – is Italian made.
Italy are world champions. Not because the players play abroad. They're coached within champion youth teams. Italians play in Italy – because they’re Italian. Brazilians play in Brazil and Koreans play in Korea.
The reason why Englishmen don't play in England is because they’re not world class. The majority of English players lack the mental capacity and technique to cope on the big stage. Italians don’t.
The marketing dept. of the Premier League are smart. Most English speaking people will believe what they’re told. They say that they’re the best – so people believe it. There is no defined style of play in England. All they do is buy foreigners to make the EPL more exciting to watch, as the English players, much like the national team, are not worth anyone's time.
I disagree with you that Italian teams are not competitive. Are you going by the Chelsea – Milan friendly result? Or that United won the Champions League? I don’t have to tell you that Milan won in 2007.
Only an EPL biased fan would think that Italian clubs are not competitive. The EPL is founded on foreign money and foreign players. There is not much English about it at all. No tradition anymore. Just a money pit for playboys and corporations to sell jerseys to the English-speaking world.
The EPL system is a farce. The youth system focuses on buying foreign youth talent. And senior football focuses on buying foreign players. Club management sells out to foreign investors. So what is English about the EPL? Probably just the brainwashed people that pay money through the gates to make money for foreigners that will sell out when the party's over.
You can make the observation that Italian clubs are buying up the foreign players this year. Every great Italian player is contracted and their respective clubs won't let them go. Italian players are complete players, consistent.
The proof of this is – which other League in the world has the same amount of success with predominantly their own players? Perhaps the Spanish can compare - but they’re lacking in national team titles on a regular basis.
You can take Kaka from Milan and Ibrahimovic from Inter and they are still great teams. But if Cristiano Ronaldo was to leave Manchester and the EPL then there isn’t much left. This is because of the home-based players strength in Italy.
Don’t forget that there are a lot of Italian players playing abroad teaching the ways of Italian football, not to mention Coaches (anyone heard of Capello). Let’s not even touch upon English Coaches.
I hope that Italian clubs keep on investing their time and money in their own players. It always pays off. This is why Italian clubs win periodically and also why the Azzurri have won four World Cups.
Ferrini
I disagree with you James, I think if Sepp’s 6+5 rule was implemented throughout all Leagues in UEFA it would immediately make the EPL drop from first to worst among the big Leagues, since its pretty obvious that English talent is garbage. Serie A would reclaim its crown as the best League in the world (although I believe it has never lost that position) and it would be good for all national teams in Europe, it would certainly make them more competitive in the World Cup.
I think right now Serie A is doing the right thing by bringing in Italian youth (Forestieri, Paloschi, Okaka, Balotelli, etc) into Serie A while still having room for top quality foreigners. I hate it when Italian clubs sell foreign stars (like when Udinese sold Muntari a few years back, luckily he’s back
now) but really as of late, Italian clubs haven’t been forced to sell any stars to foreign Leagues. I just hope Udinese keep hold of Gokhan Inler, because he’s one of my favourite players in Serie A and it would be a massive shame if he left for the EPL.
Justin M, Vancouver
I support Blatter’s concept of 6+5 and would prefer to go back to the rules of only three foreign players per team. The sad truth is that Italian football is in a bad state as there are too many teams looking overseas for talent. I understand that most of the teams have fantastic youth programmes, but the youth talent is stunted due to the lack of room in top Serie A teams due to teams looking overseas for an answer.
I think that talent of most managers has slipped away, where is the training to mould a player into a position? The answer is straight away to purchase an overseas player to fill a gap. This is affecting Italian football. Just look at the national team – they are still the same players from years ago (not always a bad thing), the main reason, is the younger talented players are held back as preference is given to splashing millions for a foreign star.
Look at how exciting and how attractive the style of play from Sampdoria. Not a great deal of foreigners in that team, last season they were one of the most exciting teams to watch. To all the big teams in Italy, put away your wallets, we know they are overflowing (in some cases), I am sure there are other things to spend it on!!
Anthony
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