Where were Roma’s current Italian players the last time Italy played at the World Cup?

There is now guaranteed to be a gap of at least 16 years between World Cup appearances for Italy after their failure to qualify for a third tournament in a row.

With participation in the 2026 edition now out of the equation for Italy, they can only focus on 2030 as their next potential appearance at the World Cup. That would be 16 years since they last competed, meaning a whole generation of Italian football fans will have grown up without seeing their nation at a World Cup.

It will likely mean a few of Roma’s more experienced Italian players will never get the chance to play at a World Cup too.

As Italians reflect on their long absence from a tournament they’ve previously won four times, let’s take a look at where Roma’s current homegrown players were when their nation last played a World Cup match in June 2014.

Bryan Cristante 

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The last Italy player to miss a penalty in the shootout that eliminated them at the 2026 World Cup play-off stage, Cristante will be 35 by the time of the 2030 edition. Back in 2014, he was a 19-year-old emerging from a season in which he scored his first senior goal for AC Milan.

However, he left them that September (after five appearances in total for the first team) to join Benfica. He became an Italy debutant in 2017 while playing for Atalanta and joined Roma a year later, eventually becoming captain in 2025.

Lorenzo Pellegrini

Pellegrini had just turned 18 the week before Italy’s last World Cup game. At that point, he was still developing in the Roma academy, playing at Primavera level. In addition, he was starting to emerge for the Italy under-19 team (which he captained a few times between October 2014 and January 2015).

His senior debut for the Azzurri would follow in June 2017, a few weeks before he rejoined Roma from Sassuolo. However, the 29-year-old played no part in Italy’s 2026 World Cup qualification attempt.

Lorenzo Venturino

Venturino had just turned eight when Italy were knocked out of the 2014 World Cup. He had joined the Genoa academy the previous year, where he continued to develop until his January 2026 loan to Roma.

The winger earned the move a couple of months after his Italy under-21 debut, but whether he secures a permanent Roma future is up for question, as are his chances of becoming a full Italy international.

Gianluca Mancini

Aged 18 at the time of Italy’s last World Cup game, Mancini was still in the Fiorentina academy back then. However, he was starting to rise to the surface; Vincenzo Montella went on to give him some gametime in that summer’s pre-season.

Mancini never ended up making a competitive debut for La Viola, later joining Roma in 2019 – the year of his first Italy cap – after spells with Perugia and Atalanta.

Niccolò Pisilli 

One of Roma’s three representatives in Italy’s 2026 World Cup play-off squad with Cristante and Mancini, Pisilli was only nine years old when the 2014 World Cup was happening.

By that stage, he had already been added to the Roma academy, which he graduated from to make a senior debut in May 2023. His first Italy cap came in October 2024 and if he continues developing as he has in recent months, he could have a part to play in Italy’s quest to end their prolonged World Cup absence by 2030.

Antonio Arena

Arena was just five years old in 2014 and still growing up in Australia, a country he remains eligible to represent despite now playing for Italy at U18 level. If he continues to show the kind of potential that helped him become the youngest player to score on his Roma debut, the tug of war for his international commitment could be interesting.

Daniele Ghilardi 

Like his current Roma defensive colleague Mancini, Ghilardi was a Fiorentina academy player back in 2014. It’s unlikely they knew of each other at the time though, as Ghilardi was only 11. He was two years into his pathway with Fiorentina after leaving hometown team Lucchese in 2012.

Also like Mancini, he never made his competitive debut in Florence. Nevertheless, Ghilardi got his chance with Roma this season on the back of a promising rise with Hellas Verona and the Italy U21 team, but at the age of 23 he is still awaiting a first senior national call-up.

Stephan El Shaarawy 

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Of Roma’s current Italian players, the most well-known in 2014 was El Shaarawy, who had already been capped by Italy before then. However, he missed the World Cup on the back of an injury-hit season with AC Milan, which derailed his vivid potential.

The then-21-year-old entered his final season playing for Milan in 2014 before being loaned to Monaco the following campaign, only to see that stint cut in half so he could join Roma in January 2016. His revival in his new surroundings would earn him a place in his country’s squad for that summer’s European Championship.

Pierluigi Gollini

Capped at U18 and U19 level by Italy before 2014, Gollini was finishing his time in the Manchester United academy that year, having ventured away from his homeland in 2012.

The goalkeeper, aged 19 at the time, was released at the end of June and joined Hellas Verona to become a reserve, although he would make his senior debut for them that season ahead of the expected schedule. He later represented Italy at senior level a single time in 2019 during Euro 2020 qualification, whilst playing for Gian Piero Gasperini at Atalanta some six years before they both ended up in Rome.