German national team midfielder Joshua Kimmich (31, Bayern Munich) expressed deep regret over Italy's failure to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America.
According to Sky Sports Italy on the 7th (Korean time), Kimmich, ahead of the first-leg away match of the 2025-2026 UEFA Champions League against Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid, Spain, at 4 a.m. on the 8th, was asked about Italian football.
Italy drew 1-1 after extra time and then lost 1-4 on penalties in the UEFA World Cup European qualifying playoff (PO) Path A final against Bosnia and Herzegovina on the 1st.
With this defeat, Italy's dream of returning to the World Cup finals after 12 years was shattered. After missing out on the 2018 Russia and 2022 Qatar tournaments, this marks a three-time consecutive failure to qualify through the qualifiers, a disaster made real.
Kimmich said, "You must not forget that Italy won Euro 2020," and humbly added, "Germany has won only one Confederations Cup in the past 10 years."
He added, "Italy is a great nation with many excellent players," and praised them, then said bitterly, "I am not at all happy about this result because I wanted to see them at the World Cup."
The tragedy of Italian football is ongoing. Since winning the 2006 World Cup in Germany, there have been no World Cup knockout tournament victories. Their last World Cup finals appearance was 12 years ago at the 2014 Brazil World Cup.
Italy, which has four overall titles tied with Germany and the second-most titles in the world after Brazil (five), will once again watch the World Cup from home.
The aftershocks of this elimination were strong. Gabriele Gravina, president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), and national team coach Gennaro Gattuso resigned immediately after the playoff defeat, plunging Italian football into chaos.
Kimmich's club, Bayern Munich, whose teammate is Kim Min-jae (30), is cruising in the Champions League. They defeated Atalanta (Italy) in the round of 16 to reach the quarterfinals. Now they will face Real for a do-or-die match to advance to the semifinals.
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