Argentina had it worse for the whole past decade and they're still producing good football. I might even add Iran, long sanctioned and choked, and still capable of decent football. But this is not a useful comparison and I can agree with you to some extent, seeing the effects Greek economy had on its football.
But I feel like the system is rather Italy's endemiaof meritocracy (or lack thereof). An old system of favouritism that continues to weaken its competitiveness.
I always forget to answer to this. How you can lie in this way man, Argentina with economical problems? Are you sure about it?
We never have any financial or economic problems...... said no one ever
About our whole talk i always remember the word of the former Argentina world champion(1986) coach Bilardo.
Here is the short video see it put the subsIs incredible how he in that program from the ends of 90' he was saying Morocco was gonna be one powerhouse, and the whole african continent was gonna be one of the best producers of football, in fact he said he point it out in the 75' when he travel to a little tournament there. And i agree with him the mayor problem is all the youths now TRAIN but dont PLAY, here in Argentina for example we say we are gonna "play ball" when we are youngs like is a game for fun, and we say we are gonna "play football" when the things go serious or profesional. ( i dont know if the traslate is gonna make so much sense but i hope you get the point).
Hahaha, believe me, I say it with the utmost respect and banterous fun
Some day, all of us who come from countries printing worthless money and who have seen prices x5 and x10 in our lifetimes should all get together for a big project of burning our shitty fiat. I still remember reaching out to you some years ago for some of your silly monopoly money hahaha
And this is something a lot of people will not understand about how "big" a country can be and how little it can export as talent in sports.
I don't know if I agree with you, I think training is still undervalued in my country, so the best talents are really just those who play a lot. But on the other hand, if you have to support your family, you don't really have time to play. To be able to train, you need support, financially. But in our countries, as children we are already working to support the family (paid or unpaid) and by the time boys especially hit 17, we're expected to leave home to work and send money back.
Salah and Mane were Africans who broke the cycle, but they had a lot of support. Salah's uncle or someone was a chairperson of the school that trained him and sponsored him. Mane was a bit different, he ran away from home so basically abandoned his responsibilities
He got to pay it all back, of course... but how many people can make it like him?
Where I come from, by the way, we play for fun on streets usually, or fields too shit to be considered good enough for real one. For real football we go to schools (where the fields are equally shitty but have the right dimensions). It doesn't happen anymore though, kids aren't really interested in playing if it's not on their phone now.
