FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread

[masulum]

For me, Italy's problem starts with the children Now, children only want to be on their electronic devices and sports, If their parents don't take them along or encourage them they won't be able to develop it like before I don't think it's just in Italy, now this is a worldwide problem That's why children's education must be comprehensive, so that countries around the world have good representation in football.

I don't think it because of gadget, there are many young players owned by Italy, just the current league is not friendly to local players. In Italy there is a primavera league that is active until now. but, when they have entered the age of 19 years and over, they do not get enough playing time. While if there is a strict rule, Serie-A teams are required to play 1-2 young Italian players in the main squad, maybe the results will be better than now. Because more young players being created and grow.

[Die_empty]

For me, Italy's problem starts with the children Now, children only want to be on their electronic devices and sports, If their parents don't take them along or encourage them they won't be able to develop it like before I don't think it's just in Italy, now this is a worldwide problem That's why children's education must be comprehensive, so that countries around the world have good representation in football.

I will have to agree with you that children now prefer to use gadgets rather than engage in physical activities. They will choose to play football in computer games rather than go out to the pitch and engage in physical activity. But this might not be the problem with the Italian national team. Everything in life will have a downtime. The Brazilian national team is also facing a transformation stage because they are not as effective as before. After this time, if certain measures are put in place, the Gli Azzurri will regain their position in world football.

I don't think it because of gadget, there are many young players owned by Italy, just the current league is not friendly to local players. In Italy there is a primavera league that is active until now. but, when they have entered the age of 19 years and over, they do not get enough playing time. While if there is a strict rule, Serie-A teams are required to play 1-2 young Italian players in the main squad, maybe the results will be better than now. Because more young players are being created and grow.

Supporting young players is important because the older ones will soon retire. Making such laws to promote young Italian players is cool. Young Italian players should not depend on the Italian league alone. I am sure that some countries would be pleased to hire talented players from Italy.  Football agents would have to look beyond the Serie A for clubs for their clients.

[imamusma]

we are very far from the Italy of the golden years Unfortunately the management was very unsuccessful in this respect, very little focus was placed on trying to grow new talents, but even if we look at the current players individually, some are defined as top players. for example Donnarumma, Bastoni, Barella but they are not enough on their own, the difference with the other players is enormous and meant that we had to watch two World Cups from home. at the same time the other nations have invested a lot in young players and have achieved better results than us.
italy should invest much more in young people, even the under 21 national team now has serious problems and in the last European Championship it had to include non-quota players

I think the decline experienced by the Italian National Team also indicates the competitive level of Serie A. We realize that Serie A is also not as competitive as it used to be, this also indirectly contributes to the decline of Italy best talents. In fact, we no longer see defenders who have talents approaching the level of Bonucci and Chiellini in the Italian National Team defense, we also don't find players of the level of Jerginho or Verratti in the midfield, and the same goes for the front line. The Italian National Team looks like they have lost their golden generation, they clearly have to find a solution for this. In the past we saw Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, AS Roma, Lazio players as the mainstays in the Italian National Team. Currently I think only Donnarumma can be considered a world class player in the Italian National Team.

[bitgolden]

I think the decline experienced by the Italian National Team also indicates the competitive level of Serie A. We realize that Serie A is also not as competitive as it used to be, this also indirectly contributes to the decline of Italy best talents. In fact, we no longer see defenders who have talents approaching the level of Bonucci and Chiellini in the Italian National Team defense, we also don't find players of the level of Jerginho or Verratti in the midfield, and the same goes for the front line. The Italian National Team looks like they have lost their golden generation, they clearly have to find a solution for this. In the past we saw Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, AS Roma, Lazio players as the mainstays in the Italian National Team. Currently I think only Donnarumma can be considered a world class player in the Italian National Team.

This decline has not happened in one or two years it's all have long roots with Serie A is now one of the wired leagues which is having too many issues and these are preventing them from having strong structure for youngsters which give them good backbone.

In last 8 years, no World Cup while now things are indicating they can lose another time which could be worst every for them because now FIFA is going with 48 teams which are surely good advantage for the Italian team, but they are not ready for this as well. Top teams in Serie A are also responsible for this decline as they fail to attract domestic youngsters those can turn things into positive with recently mostly are facing huge finances issues which are also needed to be fixed if they are looking for better results in long run.

[snipie]

Supporting young players is important because the older ones will soon retire. Making such laws to promote young Italian players is cool. Young Italian players should not depend on the Italian league alone. I am sure that some countries would be pleased to hire talented players from Italy.  Football agents would have to look beyond the Serie A for clubs for their clients.

I recall many nations doing something similar to boost their local squad. Apart from giving citizenship to good players so they can play in the national team, there is countries that imposed for example that the goalkeeper in the domestic league must be a local person. Others imposed a maximum number of foreigners per team in the league, like 3-5 in general, in addition to not allowing lower leagues to have foreign players. Others impose that foreigners cannot play any competition outside of the domestic league and regional competitions.
All these measures are done to boost the squad in the long term and Italy move comes in the same way.

[Slow death]

look i tell you that you are right with regret, we are really in bad shape. It is not just a question of coach, the players are poor and the management is also very poor.
I can't change and fix things, that's the worst thing. For real, we miss 4 world championship

For me, Italy's problem starts with the children Now, children only want to be on their electronic devices and sports, If their parents don't take them along or encourage them they won't be able to develop it like before I don't think it's just in Italy, now this is a worldwide problem That's why children's education must be comprehensive, so that countries around the world have good representation in football.

Ligue 1 is a much lower league in terms of quality when compared to Serie A. But if we take the French national team and compare it with the Italian national team, we can easily see that the French national team is superior. So in my opinion the problem is not that children focus on electronic devices, because in Europe football is a profession that makes a lot of money compared to other professions.

Every country wants their child to earn a lot of money and do well in life in an honest way. The problem in Italy is that they are not exporting players to other foreign clubs so that these Italian players can do well abroad. That way, when they become famous abroad, they will have a strong national team and could also occupy a prominent place in the big Serie A teams.

[Ale88]

For me, Italy's problem starts with the children Now, children only want to be on their electronic devices and sports, If their parents don't take them along or encourage them they won't be able to develop it like before I don't think it's just in Italy, now this is a worldwide problem That's why children's education must be comprehensive, so that countries around the world have good representation in football.

I will have to agree with you that children now prefer to use gadgets rather than engage in physical activities. They will choose to play football in computer games rather than go out to the pitch and engage in physical activity. But this might not be the problem with the Italian national team. Everything in life will have a downtime. The Brazilian national team is also facing a transformation stage because they are not as effective as before. After this time, if certain measures are put in place, the Gli Azzurri will regain their position in world football.

For sure kids barely play outside anymore but that is not the only reason otherwise why is Brazil so bad as well? Brazil is not a rich country, I don't think that the majority of the Brazilian kids spend the days playing on a smartphone, and yet the "stars" are players like Vinicius, Rodrygo, Raphinha... All players that 20 years ago would have never played for the Brazilian team because I am pretty sure that nobody, and I repeat nobody, would ever choose Vinicius, Rodrygo and Raphinha over Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho. It's like choosing between a Ford and a Lamborghini.

[bitcoin_mining]

look i tell you that you are right with regret, we are really in bad shape. It is not just a question of coach, the players are poor and the management is also very poor.
I can't change and fix things, that's the worst thing. For real, we miss 4 world championship

For me, Italy's problem starts with the children Now, children only want to be on their electronic devices and sports, If their parents don't take them along or encourage them they won't be able to develop it like before I don't think it's just in Italy, now this is a worldwide problem That's why children's education must be comprehensive, so that countries around the world have good representation in football.

If this were the case in every country, we would never see new talented footballers. There are all kinds of people in a country and everyone has different desires. Those who dream since childhood that they will grow up to be great footballers and represent their country do not pay much attention to all these games or electronic devices, but their attention is on football. If you look at Brazil, the first dream of boys in childhood is to become footballers. Maybe many of them get known for their talent and good playing skills, but many of them stay away from football.
In Brazil, there are many experienced coaches at the grassroots level to work with football. If Italy has something like this and inspires young boys to play football, then I think the problem they are in now will not exist in a few years.

[masulum]

Supporting young players is important because the older ones will soon retire. Making such laws to promote young Italian players is cool. Young Italian players should not depend on the Italian league alone. I am sure that some countries would be pleased to hire talented players from Italy.  Football agents would have to look beyond the Serie A for clubs for their clients.

It should be like that, Donnarumma is an example of how he grew with AC Milan. Because at that time there was trust from the Milan coach to make him the main goalkeeper. His performance continued to grow and he was called up by the Italian national team, getting a lot of input from Buffon in PSG, made him better. If all clubs were like that, Italy might have had more talented young players in all positions. It's just how the club gives them the opportunity to play.

[retreat]

I think the decline experienced by the Italian National Team also indicates the competitive level of Serie A. We realize that Serie A is also not as competitive as it used to be, this also indirectly contributes to the decline of Italy best talents. In fact, we no longer see defenders who have talents approaching the level of Bonucci and Chiellini in the Italian National Team defense, we also don't find players of the level of Jerginho or Verratti in the midfield, and the same goes for the front line. The Italian National Team looks like they have lost their golden generation, they clearly have to find a solution for this. In the past we saw Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, AS Roma, Lazio players as the mainstays in the Italian National Team. Currently I think only Donnarumma can be considered a world class player in the Italian National Team.

It is indeed apparent that the quality of Serie A is not as competitive as it used to be. In the 1990s and early 2000s we could see that Serie A was arguably the top league in the world, it produced the best players, the best coaches, and its stadiums were so beautiful. But now the quality of Serie A has declined drastically, because it is too much in its comfort zone and they do not want to innovate and make the quality of their league more competitive with other European leagues.

And the impact is seen that the quality of their national team has declined, because they lost their golden generation. They failed to create a competitive league to supply the best talent to their national team. Now the best players from Italy can be counted, the rest look ordinary, and this makes it difficult for them to compete.

[Akbarkoe]

Supporting young players is important because the older ones will soon retire. Making such laws to promote young Italian players is cool. Young Italian players should not depend on the Italian league alone. I am sure that some countries would be pleased to hire talented players from Italy.  Football agents would have to look beyond the Serie A for clubs for their clients.

It should be like that, Donnarumma is an example of how he grew with AC Milan. Because at that time there was trust from the Milan coach to make him the main goalkeeper. His performance continued to grow and he was called up by the Italian national team, getting a lot of input from Buffon in PSG, made him better. If all clubs were like that, Italy might have had more talented young players in all positions. It's just how the club gives them the opportunity to play.

I agree with that, without explaining that Serie A is still one of the best leagues in Europe and even in the world. However, in order to build a stronger team formation, it is necessary to have Italian players who play in different leagues in the main squad of the Italian national team. However, it is unfortunate that for now there are few Italian players who play outside of Serie A.

But clearly they must provide space for talents to develop, including those who play outside Serie A. Playing in foreign leagues can provide different experiences and challenges that will enrich their abilities. So, supporting young players to pursue opportunities outside Italy is a wise and strategic move.

[tiCeR]

It depends what you define as an achievable goal for them, but considering the FIFA ranking, they are right now ranked 57th between South Africa and Saudi Arabia. it is not bad for a small nation, or they are not that small with their population of 35 million, but they are considered rather small in the football business.

Whether there acceptable ranking has to do with their USSR past, I don't know, but it is true that countries from that region put a lot of emphasis on sports. I personally didn't know football is a big thing there.

The FIFA ranking is misleading sometimes I think because when you argue that Uzbekistan is enthusiastic about football and sports, China is as well, but they are only ranked 94th. 

Uzbekistan has hardly played against any teams outside the AFC confederation. So the current rankings doesn't really take in to account their present form. Only when they play against the top teams in tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup, their performance and prospects can be accurately measured. But I would like to repeat one thing. Performance in international football seems to have some correlation to demography. Countries with a young population are the ones who are advancing the most now. 

They didn't play against outside AFC confed treams for obvious reasons, but that coefficient does somehow try to balance out the difference in strength of all teams. I agree though that these rankings have their flaws, but scrolling through their game history reveals that they are not losing games with overwhelming results against them. The last relevant game against Australia for example, it ended 1-1 in early 2024 at the Asia Cup.

But if anything, they would only play against top teams in the group stage of a World Cup and now last month they qualified for the WC 2026 for the first time ever. I think this means something, but it has to be noted that the WC was extended I think and more teams are able to participate. I don't know if it was for their improved performance, or for the expanded field of participants that they were now able to make it.

[bitgolden]

Uzbekistan has hardly played against any teams outside the AFC confederation. So the current rankings doesn't really take in to account their present form. Only when they play against the top teams in tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup, their performance and prospects can be accurately measured. But I would like to repeat one thing. Performance in international football seems to have some correlation to demography. Countries with a young population are the ones who are advancing the most now. 

They didn't play against outside AFC confed treams for obvious reasons, but that coefficient does somehow try to balance out the difference in strength of all teams. I agree though that these rankings have their flaws, but scrolling through their game history reveals that they are not losing games with overwhelming results against them. The last relevant game against Australia for example, it ended 1-1 in early 2024 at the Asia Cup.

But if anything, they would only play against top teams in the group stage of a World Cup and now last month they qualified for the WC 2026 for the first time ever. I think this means something, but it has to be noted that the WC was extended I think and more teams are able to participate. I don't know if it was for their improved performance, or for the expanded field of participants that they were now able to make it.

I agree with you on few points still it's going to be interesting Uzbekistan is now one of the good sides in Asian region and things are clearly favouring them for having good results in future because they are having good skills and talented players.

Recently few players joined big clubs which give them good boost still need them to have good performance against top teams in the future, but their recent performance is not bad at all currently they are ranked 66th in FIFA rankings, but I am sure this is going to be improved with they are having strong structure which will help their youngsters for having good results. Difference of quality is huge but still with quality and consistent performance few teams can do much better which will give them confidence for big events like FIFA World Cup in the future.

[Synchronice]

look i tell you that you are right with regret, we are really in bad shape. It is not just a question of coach, the players are poor and the management is also very poor.
I can't change and fix things, that's the worst thing. For real, we miss 4 world championship

For me, Italy's problem starts with the children Now, children only want to be on their electronic devices and sports, If their parents don't take them along or encourage them they won't be able to develop it like before I don't think it's just in Italy, now this is a worldwide problem That's why children's education must be comprehensive, so that countries around the world have good representation in football.

The real problem is that in developed countries, kids have high standards of living, their parents are more liberal than the older generation, do more for their kids and these kids have comfort like never seen before, their rights are also very much protected. Kids who grow in undeveloped or developing countries, start working at an early age, their life is more tough than those who live in developed countries but when these kids see how good life can be in other countries when you have money, they get that lit and motivation and succeed in life. You know, hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create hard times and so on.

[Volgastallion]

look i tell you that you are right with regret, we are really in bad shape. It is not just a question of coach, the players are poor and the management is also very poor.
I can't change and fix things, that's the worst thing. For real, we miss 4 world championship

For me, Italy's problem starts with the children Now, children only want to be on their electronic devices and sports, If their parents don't take them along or encourage them they won't be able to develop it like before I don't think it's just in Italy, now this is a worldwide problem That's why children's education must be comprehensive, so that countries around the world have good representation in football.

The real problem is that in developed countries, kids have high standards of living, their parents are more liberal than the older generation, do more for their kids and these kids have comfort like never seen before, their rights are also very much protected. Kids who grow in undeveloped or developing countries, start working at an early age, their life is more tough than those who live in developed countries but when these kids see how good life can be in other countries when you have money, they get that lit and motivation and succeed in life. You know, hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create hard times and so on.

Yes, not only that, in develop countries you can find and see young guys only playing in the computer or Xbox/PS5, so they stop to practice a real sport in the streets and only a few practices in an academy because they really want to be a player or because of his parents.

That make young boys from other countries much more strong.

[tiCeR]

...

I agree with you on few points still it's going to be interesting Uzbekistan is now one of the good sides in Asian region and things are clearly favouring them for having good results in future because they are having good skills and talented players.

Recently few players joined big clubs which give them good boost still need them to have good performance against top teams in the future, but their recent performance is not bad at all currently they are ranked 66th in FIFA rankings, but I am sure this is going to be improved with they are having strong structure which will help their youngsters for having good results. Difference of quality is huge but still with quality and consistent performance few teams can do much better which will give them confidence for big events like FIFA World Cup in the future.

Recently a few players joined big clubs? It's possible that I fully missed that of course, but which players are you talking about and what clubs are they playing for today? I am not aware of any player from Uzbekistan playing for a big club. Very few have made it to the European top leagues as far as I know and if they made it there, they didn't play for the best clubs. I am all ear to learn from you where those players are now at.

As for the World Cup, yes it maybe possible for them to get some improvements done and rank up a little due to good performances, but I don't think they will make it past the group stage. They are still far away from competing with normally strong teams at the World Cup.

[Ale88]

...

I agree with you on few points still it's going to be interesting Uzbekistan is now one of the good sides in Asian region and things are clearly favouring them for having good results in future because they are having good skills and talented players.

Recently few players joined big clubs which give them good boost still need them to have good performance against top teams in the future, but their recent performance is not bad at all currently they are ranked 66th in FIFA rankings, but I am sure this is going to be improved with they are having strong structure which will help their youngsters for having good results. Difference of quality is huge but still with quality and consistent performance few teams can do much better which will give them confidence for big events like FIFA World Cup in the future.

Recently a few players joined big clubs? It's possible that I fully missed that of course, but which players are you talking about and what clubs are they playing for today? I am not aware of any player from Uzbekistan playing for a big club. Very few have made it to the European top leagues as far as I know and if they made it there, they didn't play for the best clubs. I am all ear to learn from you where those players are now at.

Well, just last January Abdukodir Khusanov joined Manchester City from Lens for over 40 million euros, that's a lot of money. In Italy there is Eldor Shomurodov, who player for Genoa and now he is with Roma. These two for sure are the most famous ones; many others still play in Uzbekistan (Pakhtakor especially) and there is someone in Turkey, Russia, and the Middle East.

I remember that in the late '90s / first '00 they the most famous players were Geynrikh and, especially, Shatskikh, which was a legend. My team, Juventus, at that time had Zeytulayev but he didn't really play. Probably the majority of players are not very famous but this team is better than ever, their football movement has grown a lot.

[Sithara007]

Well, just last January Abdukodir Khusanov joined Manchester City from Lens for over 40 million euros, that's a lot of money. In Italy there is Eldor Shomurodov, who player for Genoa and now he is with Roma. These two for sure are the most famous ones; many others still play in Uzbekistan (Pakhtakor especially) and there is someone in Turkey, Russia, and the Middle East.

I remember that in the late '90s / first '00 they the most famous players were Geynrikh and, especially, Shatskikh, which was a legend. My team, Juventus, at that time had Zeytulayev but he didn't really play. Probably the majority of players are not very famous but this team is better than ever, their football movement has grown a lot.

Alexander Geynrikh (Alexander Heinrich) was perhaps their first world class player. But he didn't had much exposure in Europe and only played for some low level clubs in the United Arab Emirates and Russia. Also, he was a dual citizen of Uzbekistan-Germany, spending most of his time with latter. The case with Abdukodir Khusanov is different. He's just 21 years old and already he is famous in Europe. Shomurodov is also getting a lot of attention, and he's not that old either (30 years old).

[tiCeR]

Recently a few players joined big clubs? It's possible that I fully missed that of course, but which players are you talking about and what clubs are they playing for today? I am not aware of any player from Uzbekistan playing for a big club. Very few have made it to the European top leagues as far as I know and if they made it there, they didn't play for the best clubs. I am all ear to learn from you where those players are now at.

Well, just last January Abdukodir Khusanov joined Manchester City from Lens for over 40 million euros, that's a lot of money. In Italy there is Eldor Shomurodov, who player for Genoa and now he is with Roma. These two for sure are the most famous ones; many others still play in Uzbekistan (Pakhtakor especially) and there is someone in Turkey, Russia, and the Middle East.

I remember that in the late '90s / first '00 they the most famous players were Geynrikh and, especially, Shatskikh, which was a legend. My team, Juventus, at that time had Zeytulayev but he didn't really play. Probably the majority of players are not very famous but this team is better than ever, their football movement has grown a lot.

Ok missed that and thank you for clarification. Now two players playing for Manchester City and Roma is definitely fostering progress within the Uzbekistan team as a whole. While two players can't turn them into a World Cup title contender, you could see from Georgia how much impact some top players can have on the team. Mamardaschvili and Mikautadze improved Georgia's game so much that you can see two players can do something, but there are limits.

In order for a national team to develop a highly competitive squad, it takes many years, if not more than a decade and even then it is close to impossible to being a nation that is not that popular for football to a level that it can compete with the best national teams in the world. In one games maybe yes, but not in a whole competition from the beginning till the end.

Greece has once done the impossible, but I think it hasn't happened again that a team like that won something big.

[Ale88]

Ok missed that and thank you for clarification. Now two players playing for Manchester City and Roma is definitely fostering progress within the Uzbekistan team as a whole. While two players can't turn them into a World Cup title contender, you could see from Georgia how much impact some top players can have on the team. Mamardaschvili and Mikautadze improved Georgia's game so much that you can see two players can do something, but there are limits.

Exactly, that is the point: these new football nations are growing a lot, only 10 years ago nobody would have thought that a player from Uzbekistan would be paid 40 million euros. Georgia is another great example, back in the days they only Kaladze and a couple of decent strikers like Arveladze and Kobiashvili, now they have a few very good players and Kvaratskhelia, despite his young age, is already by far the greatest player they ever had. The goalkeeper, Mamardashvili, will shortly join Liverpool. This means the football movement is growing a lot in these countries.