Donadoni : "too many foreigners in serie A"

I think it's not as much that we have too many foreigners, I think the teams put too much trust in foreigners instead of Italians. Especially young Italians that come through the Primavera sides. If Juventus weren't in Serie B most of the young players they have on the squad would not even be getting a chance. Most would be loaned out, just like Moggi used to do with all the Italian youngsters Juventus had. Inter is another story, they only have 4 Italians on their 32 man squad. With Milan, who in early to mid 90s had almost their whole squad come up from the Primavera, I can't remember the last time a Primavera player was integrated into the first team squad. They are all loaned out or sold off.

 

Amen Donadoni!!! It's about time someone in Italy finally came out and said it! It has just gotten ridiculous how as to how much Italian clubs (mainly the big clubs) have given more opportunity to foreign talent than to their own domestic players! As a result, it will only become a matter of time before our national teams at every level are suffering because of a lack of player development by our clubs! This is already a major problem in England, which seems to welcome more foreign players than any other major league in Europe, and their National teams at every level have been suffering as a result. A club like Inter makes me sick to my stomach when I see both Moratti and Mancini deliberately going out into the transfer market and targeting only foreign talent (especially Argentine players)! It's a slap in the face to Italian football and Italy's domestic talent! I for one thing the FIGC should give serious consideration to putting a limit on the number of foreign imports per club, otherwise more than half the league will be composed of foreign talent within the next few years!

 

About damned time that someone condemns the amount of foreigners in Serie A.

And he's completely right.

Not only is it embarrassing, but it gives Italy as a national squad a disadvantage against other teams, who have been enriched with the amount of talent they've received from playing in Serie A. I'm not saying ban all foreigners, but they do certainly need to be reduced.

 

about time, someone needs to stop this before its too late LOOK AT THE EPL arsenal,chelsea,liverpool are filled with foreigners 3 of the top 4 teams in the EPL, i would hate to see this happen in italy, what about the national team.

for much too long south americans have been getting a free ride in europe, its not like italians can go and expect to get paid well.

its all business now its going to kill international soccer, and kill my love for the sport.

 

this is in answer to a question from the thread that got locked in another place discussing the same article. italy actually has ome very good youth academies. not just the big clubs, but parma (rossi, paponi, dessena, cigarini) and roma (virga, okaka chuka, curci, rosi) and even clubs like atalanta and others have good academies. It is just that they fill the ranks of the mid-tier sides and bottom clubs of serie a and also serie b and lower divisions, but the upper tier clubs don't even hardly give them a shot. now, i am not super nationalistic as it is (I'm not italian, but I'm not nationalistic as an american, so I am assuming I would be the same way if i was italian), and i understand that you need to compete for big trophies and you would get left behind if you never tapped any of the immense talent from south america, france and other european countries, and so on, but there is such a thing as going overboard.

what is frustrating to me, is it seems at times, even the scouts and administrators seem to buy into the hype abroad and splash big money on an "exotic" commodity who has unknowns like "how will he adjust to a different language, culture, and being away from family," and "how we adjust to the tactical and technical play in italy," when you have a guy who is comfortable in the culture and who is proving day in and day out that he can handle serie a competition by actually doing it and he would be a good deal cheaper to boot usually. yet they still seem to go outside almost in a grass is greener type situation. it is bad business sense, imho and then has also a second negative in that it hurts the national teams, which is doubly frustrating for any azzurri fan like myself. there does seem to be a recent trend with the comments of some of the directors of the teams, not just donadoni today (plus juve was forced to use some of their youngsters and hence will probably keep a few of those you would think) that this may be changing and they will look to grab guys from within, but so far it is just words and we need to see action.

again, italy is a calcio first nation of nearly 60 million people with a great tradition and great schools and the resources to really develop the talent if they scout properly, train them properly, etc. you can't tell me that inter can't find more than one italian to get regular playing time in all the country?
thoughts?

edit: this was catfish's question I believe.

 

Sepp Blatter, believe it or not, is planning on making a rule pertaining to this matter. Cassano, what was that rule again? Thanks.

 

EXACTLY!

One of my friends is a die-hard Arsenal fan. But, even he has a problem with the lack of Englishmen on the team. There are hardly any. I do not want to see Serie A fall into this as well. It's nice to have a few foreigners on your team... but they should not dominate your squard. Inter has become like this.

Fortunately, most Serie A teams are Italian. But the way things are going, alot of teams, especially the top teams, will have many foreigners. Let's keep italian football what it really is supposed to be.... CALCIO!!!

 

well it's a UEFA rule I think, not a FIFA rule.

But it's the Homegrown rule, and starting from next season each squad has to have a certain number of players from their youth academy on the roster.

But there are loopholes. For example, Milan signed Oddo in January. He counts as a homegrown player because he came through the Milan youth system. So for some clubs you may not necessarily see more youngsters on the roster.

 

Its a start at least. It's not such a bad thing to have a few foreign players on your squad in order to remain competitive. But when your foreign players grossly outnumber your domestic ones (like in the case of Inter for example) then there is great reason for concern. It's gotten to the point where I don't consider Inter to even be an "Italian" team anymore! The only thing that can really be considered Italian about INter is where they play!

 

inter are a disgrace and moratti is a liar, he said before last summer it will be an all italian transfer summer, he ended up getting 1 italian and about 4-5 foreigners.

inter and arsenal are the worst though.

 

2006 was an important World Cup for us not only because we won, but because it'll be the last time we had ALL the players on our roster playing for an Italian team...

Inter really stands true to its name (Internazionale) That would be the best way to describe them. It's a trend that I've been seeing creep up on our clubs in the serie A. Moratti shouldn't even call his club an Italian team. Maybe he can move himself and his team to Argentina, and please take all the Interisti with you (Interisti : lower class Milanesi) We're better off in Milano without that organization. Thank you

 

Most of the foreigners in the Serie A are quite dodgy these days. Only a few like Kaka, Mutu and most of Inter's players are good foreigners (Ibra's spastic though). After the infamous events of the 12 months, foreigners have lost interest in playing in the Serie A and there are a lot of quality Italian players anyway.

 

milan fielded 6 italians against manchester united and were almost unstopable.

 

Actually, I think in the end, 8 of the 14 players used by Milan were Italians. Let's see:

• Nesta
• Oddo
• Favalli
• Ambrosini
• Gatusso
• Pirlo
• Inzaghi
• Gilardino

Of those, 6 are current world champions.

Juve was terrible during the brief Capello era. Moggi gave him too much with the veteran foreigners that Capello wanted. So some promising young Italians that were with Juve were sent away. Under Moggi, Juve did loan out a number of their youth players, Italian and otherwise. At first, I thought this was a good plan as it gave these players experience. But considering how so few panned out, I am not so sure. Many of these players became worse and probably picked up bad habits being with lower clubs. Deschamps has been forced somewhat to use youngsters, even some Primavera players but instead of complaining as Capello use to do, he gave them a chance and they did the job. I just hope that he and the club have trust in these youngsters when Juve returns to Serie A.

Considering the success of the U21 team, there is no reason why all of those players should not become regulars among Italian sides, especially the bigger clubs. Not every U21 player will become a regular on the senior Azzurri squad but they should be Serie A players for the most part. They may make mistakes of youthful players but in the long run, it will payoff.

 

Moggi definitely ruined some talent. Giuseppe Sculli is one that comes to my mind right away. Lots of promise but every season he found himself on another team.

 

Not sure how much of that was management or coaching. Definitely during Capello's time, he had little use for young Italian talent. Maresca never got a shot with him. But the loaning of players was very active during Maggio and Giraudo era. At first, I thought it was a good plan but as I stated above, as I saw some of this talent go to waste, I have changed my mind. But to get it to work, you need a coach willing to take a chance with a youngster and management that will back him up.

 

It is all well and good to decry the use of 'too many' (how many is too many"?) foreigners, but the fact remains that due to Italy being a part of the EU, it is very difficult if not impossible to go back to a nationalistic futbol culture.

Right now, under EU rules, any EU citizen can "work" and live anywhere in the EU. That includes football, despite what Blatter thinks.

If a rule to limit EU players from playing in other EU countires is passed by UEFA, it wil only last as long as it takes for a player to challenge it under EU competition rules.

This is like Bosman. No way to put it back in the bottle.

Now, as far as non-EU players are concerned, that is a different matter and Inter's use of the Argy/Italian "ancestry" loophole is particularly grievous.

Still, the underlying argument is flawed IMHO. Anyone who watched the Prem BEFORE an influx of foreign talent think it was a better league? I don't.

And playing with skillful foreigners has raised the game of the English players capable of playing at that level.

Let's face, there just aren't that many.

Same isn't true in Italy where there are still tons of skilled players and most still play in Serie A.

But playing with top foreigners has definitely helpred the Italians at Juve and Milan (Inter doesn't have Italian players so that doesn't apply to them).

Where the Azzurri are in trouble is at central defense. As Nestavarro age, there are still no slam dunk replacements for them. FB is looking better, but CB is a big problem.

You can't blame foreigners for that.

 

Considering the lack of playing time that Andreolli has been receiving at Inter, I CAN in a way blame foreigners for that. BUt then again, it would be unfair to blame these foreign players. If you're some poor kid from South America with loads of talent, and a huge world famous club like Inter approaches you and wants to offer you millions to play for them in Europe, then no kidding you're gonna jump on that opportunity! If we should be blaming anyone it's the club owners and managers that continue to neglect home grown talent in favour of these foreigners!

 

I love Donadoni a great guy. My team played against his team the Metrostars when he first came to the Metros. Final score 1 v 1 we had the lead then he hit one of those FK's of his to get the draw.

But this is not new news. Italians have been saying this through the 1980's. For all I know they may have had more foreign players then then they do now.

 

well honestly do you think inter would have gave pirlo a chance to develop into the player he is now?

i don't mind the ronaldinho's, kaka's, messi's its the the other foriegners who take up space on italian clubs that are probley as good as the italian player sitting on the bench for them.

 

WHY would an Italian team (or ANY team, for that matter) keep an Italian/home grown player who is "just as good" as a foreigner on the bench?

That doesn't happen.

For whatever reason, the manager of that particular team doesn't think the Italian/home grown player IS as good, cause if he was, he would be on the field and the foreigner wouldn't even be on the squad.

This is a tired refrain heard in EVERY league and except for non-EU players, it isn't going to change.

And no, Inter would not have given Pirlo a chance like the one he got at Milan. He was lucky a manager with vision spotted what he could do (and not what he couldn't do) and designed a place for him that accentuates what he does well.

That means he was fortunate enough to end up with a GOOD MANAGER who actually evaluates his talent and designs a system to maximize it.

Too few of those around and I think the Azzurri boss would be better served complaining about THAT than about 'too many foreigners."

 

Watch the Coke League Playoffs and it is pretty easy to imagine what the Prem would look like WITHOUT the foreigners.

Serie A would be better, of course, but not nearly as entertaining as it is now.

 

I've had the exact same debate regarding the current state of hockey in the NHL as well. About 30% of the current NHL talent pool is made up of European imports, and many of the more "traditional" fans are upset by the potential over-usage and dependence on these imports. But at the same time, we gotta realize that with so many teams it's extremely difficult to find strong enough domestic talent in order to fill up 20+ spots in a squad!

In professional football in Europe it's even more of a problem because these teams also have to be competitive in European competitions, not just domestic ones. And when it comes to those you gotta do wtv is necessary in order to make sure you can match the opposition, even if that means chasing high priced foreign talent!

I just think though that it should be kept to a minimum, and not overly abused like teams like Inter and Arsenal do.