Philipp Lahm, former soccer player, speaks during an interview before the Sepp Herberger Awards ceremony. Michael Matthey/dpa
Former Germany and Bayern Munich captain Philipp Lahm has criticised the current state of once famed Italian football and compared it to one the nation’s iconic car makers.
“Today’s Italian teams remind me of a Ferrari which, throttled down by 200 horse powers and with a half full tank, runs out of petrol 10 laps before the finish,” Lahm said in a column on Tuesday for Zeit online.
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“Even the most beautiful design doesn’t help.”
The statement came before the Champions League quarter-final tie between Bayern and Inter Milan which starts later Tuesday.
Lahm acknowledged that the Italian national team was better organized than Germany in their recent Nations League quarter-final which Germany won, but that the Azzurri “could not deal their (Germany’s) intensity.”
“There is a lack of initiative, engagement, athleticism. Italy puts in a much lesser effort than the other four top leagues from Spain, England, France and Germany. The players run less,” he said.
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“I read a statistic a few years ago that the Bundesliga team with the lowest scores ran more than the one with the highest in Serie A.”
The 2013 Champions League and 2014 World Cup winner said that Italian teams lack dynamism which “leads to a quality problem.”
“Italy hasn’t updated its operating system, it works too slowly,” he said.
Inter are the last Serie A team in the Champions League and the last to win the elite event, in 2010 against Bayern. Lahm said they are “not the favourites” this time.
The Italian national team won Euro 2020 but has failed to qualify for the last two World Cups.
