World Cup Inbreeding

After viewing the rosters of most of the teams, one thing stands out. The Italian team is composed entirely of players from the Italian Serie A league. Not a single player on the team competes in Spain, England, Germany, France, Holland...

Mind you, Germany, England and Spain also get the majority of their players from within their national leagues. So the difference may not be significant.

Still, one wonders what this means. The fear for Italy is that it means the current crop of Italian players do not play their best outside the borders of their fair nation. And as the World Cup is being held in Germany, that would not bode well for a team with high expectations.

On the otherhand, perhaps it only means that the Serie A league is so competitive, that Italian players have no reason to go abroad for the best club soccer has to offer.

We shall see.