Earlier this week, the Italian National Football Team suffered yet another devastating heartbreak.
The team were defeated by Bosnia and Herzegovina on penalties in their World Cup playoff final, meaning they will not participate in the 2026 World Cup.
Consequently, the Italians have now failed to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup.
Remarkably, Italy is now the only former World Cup champion to have missed three consecutive World Cup tournaments.
Jannik Sinner, the Italian tennis star, has offered his take on his nation’s loss to Bosnia.
Jannik Sinner says he would trade an ATP title for Italy to qualify for the World Cup
Ahead of the Monte Carlo Masters, Sinner was asked if he would trade an ATP title for Italy to qualify for this year’s World Cup.
“Look it is what it is,” Sinner said during his media duties ahead of the Monte Carlo Masters.
“Obviously it’s tough. If you would ask me, I would love to make this exchange because of a simple fact that there are many many young people and young kids haven’t seen the World Cup yet with Italy there present.
“Me too because back in the day I was also too young to follow.
“Now we have some time to change a couple of things and also to get back where we deserve to be and where we hope to be.
“Lets see, now we cannot change anything anymore.”
Sinner, the world number two, is preparing to participate in his first clay-court event of 2026 at the Monte Carlo Masters.
The number two seed, who recently completed the heralded ‘Sunshine Double’ in America, has received a bye and will play Ugo Humbert or 17-year-old French starlet Moise Kouame in the second round.
Italy’s record since winning the 2006 World Cup
Italy won their fourth World Cup title in 2006, defeating France on penalties in the final.
Since then, the nation have failed to make it past the group stage.
In 2010, Italy were eliminated in the group stage after accumulating just two points. They drew against Paraguay and New Zealand and lost to Slovakia.
Four years later, the Italians suffered the same fate.
The Italians started strongly, beating England 2-1. However, their hopes quickly evaporated after losing to Uruguay and group winners Costa Rica.
Since then, as mentioned already, Italy have failed to qualify for a World Cup.
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