World Cup Champion - Italy

• ​Champions: 4  (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006)
  
• Runner Ups: 2 (1970, 1994)
• GOAT: Giuseppe Meazza
• Mt. Rushmore: 
  • ​Paolo Maldini
  • Roberto Baggio
  • Gianluigi Buffon

Top Five Major Highlights:

1. In the romantic sense, Italians are said to live their futbol/ soccer the way Gladiators did in the Roman Empire. Winning at any cost, is really a matter of life or death (literally back in the day, figuratively now obviously). Rumor actually has it, that in a telegram prior to the 1938 finals, Mussolini sent a message to the team, saying it was a matter of "life or death", of which it has been denied. Italians attribute much of their success to what it is known as "calcio catenaccio", where catenaccio translates to door-bolt, a reference to a defensive, tactical, and pragmatic way of approaching the sport. Therefore, they have always given successes to covering zones, filling in gaps, and counterattacking when possible. 
2. Italy is one of two countries (the other being Brazil) to win two consecutive World Cup titles, the first two being in 1934 and 1938. It's important to note here that there is often a debate on whether to put Meazza or Maldini as Italy's all time footballer. For us, typically when it comes to greatest defenders of all time, and we break it down by generations, the three that come up for their generations are Franz Beckenbuaer, Paolo Maldini, and Sergio Ramos. But, Maldini never raised the big one. And his opportunity of reaching the final came in 1994, which Italy lost to Brazil. So, it's important to note, that two of Italy's stars (that they rightfully and proudly get to where on their shirt) continues to stay, then Meazza is the main reason for those first two world cup titles they won in the 1930s. 
3. The national team has provided many iconic moments for world futbol/ soccer. You have the infamous/famous, whichever perspective you look at it, of the 2006 World Cup title, headlined by Italy's catenaccio, Buffon's goalkeeping brilliance, and the elephant in the room, Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt on Marco Materazzi. But the other one that is etched in history is the Divine Ponytail, the great Roberto Baggio, and his 1994 performance. Many have said, if he didn't pull his hamstring and was at 100% against Brazil in the final, that Golden Generation that had Baggio, Maldini, and Baresi would have or could have won. But futbol/ soccer history is never written until the chapter is concluded, and so with that, that 1994 team with Baggio, Maldini, and Baresi will fall in penalites, and it was Romario's and Bebeto's Brazil who lifted the trophy. 
4. With major successes, they are also met with epic and iconic failures. The issue is not the drought of not winning a world cup, which at the minimum will be twenty years. But since winning in 2006, they failed to exit the group stages in 2010 and 2014. So much so, that they failed to record only one win in those two participations and a total of five points. And if you think it couldn't have gotten worse, they failed to qualify for both the 2018 and 2022 world cups. So, and we are not being rocket scientists here, but once the next world cup comes along, they would have only garnered a total of 5 points and one world cup match victory in sixteen years. What is odd in all of this, in this unprecedented drought, Italy pulled together a wonderful team spirit performance, and was able to win the 2021 European Championships.
5. Other major championships: They have won 2 European Championships with 2 runner ups.