Italian celebrity chef Aldo Zilli has labelled the national team as a bunch ‘mummy’s boys’.
Italy became the first former winners to miss out on three consecutive World Cups having failed to reach Russia 2018, Qatar 2022 and now the 2026 edition.
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Ten-man Italy took Bosnia and Herzegovina to penalties on Tuesday night after Alessandro Bastoni was sent off in the first half.
Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali was the only Italian player to score from the spot as the home found the net with all four of their penalties.
It will now be 16 years since the four-time winners faced a knockout match in the World Cup despite the highs of being victorious in Euro 2020 against England.
Reacting on Wednesday morning, Zilli spoke to Ally McCoist and Tony Cascarino on eSPORTY Breakfast with his Italian football shirt still on from the night before.
He said: “I haven’t even taken it off [the shirt] to sleep, I’ve been crying all night.
“Bosnia were better than us, they were more aggressive than us, they had a striker who shows up on big occasions and they played at home which made it very difficult for us.
“We changed our formation because of the red card, we created all the chances we could have in a game, we didn’t take our chances so we got punished and rightly so.”
Not only from an international perspective, but from a Serie A point of view, Italy is failing in Europe.
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The last Italian team to win the Champions League was Inter Milan in 2010, while in this year’s competition, all four clubs from Italy were eliminated before the quarter finals.
Zilli added: “Serie A has very few Italian players, we have a lot coming up and the U21s are probably better than the first team but we have to wait a couple of years for them.
“A team like Como doesn’t have a single Italian player in it and has been criticised heavily.
“A lot of teams in Italy are not using their academies and not producing, my son was at Como so I know what goes on in the background.
“Until that changes, football won’t get better, but even if we had gone to the World Cup, we would have been on the first plane back.”
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‘Mummy’s boys’
Gennaro Gattuso, the current head coach of Italy, won the World Cup with his country in 2006 as the Azzurri beat France on penalties in the final.
He apologised to the nation and it remains to be seen whether he will hang onto his job.
Zilli praised the manager and called the players ‘mummy’s boys’, questioning whether they have the personality to match their fiery boss.
Zilli said: “He’s a fantastic man, he’s very passionate – how he plays is how he’s managing.
“Unfortunately we don’t believe he is going to take Italy forward to win anything because I don’t think the football he wants to play fits the team he has got.
” I think he has got a lot of mummy’s boys and it’s not the Gattuso, Chiellini, Bonucci era anymore.
“The people he has surrounded himself with are all very passionate people and players, they have won everything in their lives, the new generation is not the same.
“They need to change the whole system, the whole manager and structure needs to change and it needs to happen now before the qualifiers for the Euros start.”
European qualifiers begin in March 2027, with 54 eligible teams competing for only 24 spots in tournament.
