“I don’t feel like a pioneer.” Gianluca Zambrotta (Como, Italy; 47 years old) was a winger until Carlo Ancelotti renamed him a midfielder at Juventus. However, football had another evolution in store for him: “Marcelo Lippi asked me if he wanted to change roles and be a full-back. “It was a good idea.” His new role led him to lift the 2006 World Cup in Germany. He was not just another full-back, in fact, although he denies it, he was one of the first to jump from the right wing to the left without complaining. “I had to work hard, especially when preparing for the games. Playing in a line of four with a changed leg requires you to know how to choose plays very well. You have to know when to go deeper, when to throw yourself in the middle, when you have to stay.”
Diego Pablo Simeone assures that, in modern football, the most important thing is the full-backs: “When you have good, you have many more chances to win. Many things are demanded of them.” Zambrotta not only agrees with Simeone, but explains the evolution. “In my time you first worried about defending and then you could think about attacking. I had that offensive instinct, of course, my teammates helped me. Del Piero, for example, always gave it to me,” he recalls. “But,” explains Zambrotta, “Guardiola appeared.” So, the winger is no longer only concerned with defending and is concerned with attacking when he finds the space. “In the search for possession, teams no longer just place the full-back in line. Now they are in the center of the field, they have to know how to defend, of course; but also press, play between the lines, go deeper… Let’s compare the position with 15 or 20 years ago, perhaps it is the one that has evolved the most.”
From Pep Guardiola to Spalletti – against Albania the Azzurra he placed Di Lorenzo as another midfielder—, from Italy to Spain, Zambrotta surrenders to Carvajal. “He is a legend, a reference for all those who want to understand the functions of the modern full-back. “It is a type of record, representative of Real Madrid and Spain,” he emphasizes. Zambrotta understands in any case that it is not only the full-back position that has evolved in recent years, La Roja’s football has also evolved. “There is no longer, at least in the match against Croatia, the Tiki Taka that we were used to seeing. There is a more concrete, more direct game, but with great players. Lamine, for example, seems phenomenal to me.”
It happens that while Spain is excited by the talent of Lamine Yamal (16 years old) and Nico Williams (21), Italy, four-time world champions, is drying up in attack. “In the team in which I played there were great capocannonieri like Vieri, Inzaghi, Montella, Toni, Del Vecchio… In short, great forwards. But that’s not the only problem. Where are the 10? A Totti, a Del Piero, a Roberto Baggio, a Mancini, a Zola? Mancini says we have a problem in attack. Just analyze the names. We don’t have a playmaker, the typical offensive midfielder who invents an assist or a goal-scoring play at any moment,” he maintains. “However,” he adds, “Italian football has evolved in recent years. We have had a finalist in the Champions League, in the Europa League and in the Conference. So we remain competitive.”
Zambrotta remembers, in any case, who is the defender of the title in Germany: the Azzurra He climbed to the top of the podium at Wembley 2021, in the last Euro Cup. “Without a doubt, Italy will compete,” he warns; “Now there will be an important test against Spain, which is a team that has many players who can make a difference: Morata, Yamal, Rodri, Dani Olmo, Pedri…. But I also think Italy started well against Albania. They suffered a little in the second half, but against Spain I envision a balanced match. Italy can play very well,” closes Zambrotta. The full-back analyzes the game, while Italy seeks to reinvent its football. He has already started doing it. It lacks a 10, also a capocannonieribut it is Italy and it will compete.
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