Italy, Bonucci: ‘We have the talent, but we need to let it shine’

Madrid (Spain), 20 April (LaPresse) – To revive Italian football, “it will take time, just as it did in tennis; for many years we had practically no one in the top 100, and today we are fortunate enough to have 10 players in the top ranks. There must be an alliance between politics and football, which is essential if we are all to move in the same direction, and then we need to start from the basics: teaching young players individual technique, which is perhaps what our talents lack most today, because we have them, but we don’t let them express themselves freely, and this is what we are paying the price for most.” This was stated by former footballer Leonardo Bonucci, assistant coach of the Italian national team, at a press conference at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid. “It’s true that tactics are important, but it’s also true that letting talented players take the initiative allows you to achieve great results. We saw this before when we had talented players who, supported by tactics, enabled us to become world champions. That’s where we need to start again. For many years we swept the dust under the carpet, but the problems were obvious. I hope that this failure of the Italian national football team can be a new beginning to restore Italy to the place it deserves in the coming years,” he added. “We have great talent in football and we need to have the courage, as they do in many other countries, to throw them into the fray even at the cost of a few mistakes, so that we can return to being that Italy which is respected and respectable in every competition,” remarked Bonucci.