The Downward Trend That Luciano Spalletti Faces With Italy

With Italy struggling to secure a spot at UEFA Euro 2024, coach Luciano Spalletti is crying out for a goalscoring saviour to stand up and deliver in the final two European Cup Qualifiers (ECQ), a dilemma that many of his predecessors circumvented.

Italians have long revelled in the extraordinary achievements of their goalscoring centravanti heroes. For generations, Serie A has facilitated the production line of pure genius from Gigi Riva to Paolo Rossi, then Salvatore Schillaci and more recently, Christian Vieri. In terms of European prestige, Italy is second to none, having won four FIFA World Cups while manifesting one of the richest bloodlines of attacking talent the world has ever seen.