Former Italian striker Gianfranco Zola believes that there are no world-class players in the "scuadre azurre".

On the eve of the friendly match between England and Italy, which takes place today, March 27, at Wembley Stadium, Gianfranco Zola analyzed the state of affairs in the current Italian national team.

"We flew past the 2018 World Cup, and it's not an accident," Gazzetta dello Sport quotes former Napoli, Parma and Chelsea players who played 35 matches (10 goals) for the "scuadra azzurro". - In Italy there are simply no stars, no world-class players. Often asked: "Why do not new talents appear in the national team?" And I usually reply that they can not appear in the team because, with the exception, perhaps, Lorenzo Insigne and Simone Verdi, there simply is not ".

"The success of the national team can be based on a high level of development of junior and amateur football. But amateur football in Italy almost died because of the financial crisis, and in the youth there are too many foreign specialists who are interested not in training for the adult teams, but in achieving immediate success at their level ".

"Now we are inferior in all respects not only to Germany, which is not afraid to critically assess its shortcomings and seek ways to eliminate them, but also in England, where huge money is invested not only in professional but also in youth and in children's football".

Gianfranco Zola became the last (at the moment) football player who was able to bring the victory of the Italian team over England to Wembley, scoring the only goal on February 12, 1997 in the match of the qualifying tournament of the 1998 World Cup.

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