The Italian men’s soccer team is synonymous with sporting excellence.
There’s a paradox at play, however, with the famous Azzurri, who have won the World Cup four times, this week coming to terms with failure to qualify for the sport’s premier international tournament for the third time in succession.
The inquest will be long and painful, and the images from their qualification play-off final loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina are destined to be seared into the minds of fans across the globe for years.
Spectacular underachievers go down in history for all the wrong reasons. A host of writers from across The Athletic dive into the stories of some of the biggest international underperformers in men’s sports — at the very least to demonstrate that tragic failure is not an exclusively Italian pursuit.
The U.S. men’s basketball team at the 2004 Olympics
It was the first time the mighty U.S. men’s basketball team fielded a roster of NBA stars — and didn’t win gold.
The summer of 2004 was a tumultuous one for the American side. Three years removed from 9/11, there were serious security concerns that kept the usual cadre of established superstars who had represented the U.S. at the Olympics since the Dream Team first emerged in 1992 away from the Athens Games.
Injury ruled Jason Kidd out and Kobe Bryant faced legal trouble. The only three stars who were originally expected to be on the team who actually showed up were Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan and Richard Jefferson. But names, some 22 years later, that you know really well, like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony, were on that team too.
A sour-faced LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, right, during the medal ceremony at the 2004 Olympics. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
And the U.S. flopped. It started with a 19-point loss to Puerto Rico in the Olympic opener, the smallest country in the tournament and an island that is considered a U.S. territory. The point differential still stands as the Americans’ worst loss in Olympic basketball history, and was the first time a U.S. team with NBA players had ever lost. The U.S. lost two more times that summer and finished with a bronze medal, causing LeBron to be dubbed “LeBronze” back home.
But that lasted all of four years.
Joe Vardon
Ferrari
Ferrari is the closest team Formula 1 has to the national motor racing squads of old, as it remains in effect the Italian national team. But it has legions of global fans and, as four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel once said: “Everybody is a Ferrari fan. Even if they’re not, they are.”
That’s a lot of people, therefore, waiting for its title drought to end. It hasn’t won the constructors’ championship since 2008 and has missed the more prestigious drivers’ title since 2007.
The now 19-year gap since the latter triumph (for Kimi Räikkönen) is approaching Ferrari’s record drought of 21 years between Jody Scheckter winning the 1979 world title and Michael Schumacher’s victory in 2000.
Ferrari haven’t won an F1 drivers’ or constructors’ championship since 2008. (Clive Mason / Getty Images)
A string of champion drivers have arrived from elsewhere and failed to win another title with Ferrari since 2007. Many management reshuffles over those ensuing years haven’t helped, but Ferrari often start seasons strongly (2017, 2019, 2022, 2024 and 2026?) before failing on in-year car development and dropping back is the oft-repeated pattern.
Mercedes and Red Bull have led the way of the modern F1 super squads, while McLaren has managed to restore its past glory. For Ferrari, however, the wait ticks on…
Alex Kalinauckas
Finland at the 2017 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships
For a long time, the big five hockey countries (that’s Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden and Finland) weren’t supposed to lose to anyone but each other, or occasionally the Czechs or Slovaks.
Firing your coach in-tournament in a world championship? Playing for relegation? Incomprehensible.
And yet that’s the situation the Finns found themselves in at the 2017 World Juniors, a year after they’d won gold. With six NHL first-round picks, they lost to the Swedes, Czechs and, in an all-time upset at the World Juniors, the Danes — who’d never finished higher than eighth and haven’t finished higher than 10th since — to open the tournament.
On December 30, just five days in and on the eve of a matchup with Switzerland to close out group play, the Finnish Ice Hockey Association fired head coach Jukka Rautakorpi mid-tournament and replaced him with Under-18 head coach Jussi Ahokas, in town as an analyst for the Finnish broadcaster.
Jukka Rautakorpi, center, lost his job as Finland head coach midway through the 2017 World Junior Championships. (Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
Though Ahokas led Finland to a narrow 2-0 win over Switzerland in their final Group A game, the Finns would still finish last in their pool, forcing them into a best-of-three relegation series with Latvia. The firing was a first in tournament history and Finland’s ninth-place finish stands as their worst in its 50-year history.
Scott Wheeler
Japan at the 2026 World Baseball Classic
Winners of three of the first five iterations of the World Baseball Classic — baseball’s answer to the World Cup — Team Japan, more popularly known as Samurai Japan, were in prime position to make it four titles in March.
Instead, Japan never advanced past the quarterfinals, losing 8-5 to Team Venezuela, this year’s champions in a contest that went south early and continued to freefall until the final out.
In a particularly cruel twist of fate, Shohei Ohtani, arguably baseball’s best player and the driving force behind Japan’s title in 2023, was the final out of the game. Hours after the loss, Samurai Japan’s manager Hirokazu Ibata announced his intention to resign, saying: “The result is everything.”
Shohei Ohtani and Japan came up short at this year’s World Baseball Classic. (Gene Wang – Capture At Media / Getty Images)
So what went wrong? This iteration of Japan’s team went heavy on the star power, sacrificing defense in the name of having as many of MLB’s Japanese stars on the same time. That clashed with a relief pitching staff that was mostly made up of pitchers low on strikeout power, due to several injuries.
Couple that with poor starting pitching management, and Samurai Japan’s 2026 WBC run is one of the worst on the international baseball stage.
Johnny Flores Jr.
Italian men’s cycling
Italian sporting concerns are not just confined to football. They are one of the great cycling nations, boasting one of the sport’s three Grand Tours, yet no male Italian has won the Giro d’Italia since Vincenzo Nibali in 2016, the race’s longest-ever spell without a home winner.
It’s a similar story at the world championships, where Italy have the second-most victories (56) in the men’s road race, yet no rainbow jersey since Alessandro Ballan won in Varese in 2008. And yes, France have waited longer for a Tour winner, but they have the shimmeringly-talented Paul Seixas ready and waiting to go.
No Italian rider has become been crowned a men’s world champion since 2008. (Dario Belingheri / Getty Images)
Hopes are high for 22-year-old Giulio Pellizzari — who came sixth at both the Giro and Vuelta a Espana in 2025 — and 18-year-old Lorenzo Finn, who won the 2024 junior worlds and 2025 Under-23 worlds, but both are long-term prospects.
No one expects an Italian male to emulate Elisa Longo Borghini, who has won the Giro d’Italia Women for the past two years. Just as with the football team, the style and glory of the 1990s and 2000s seem a long time ago.
Duncan Alexander
Ireland at the Rugby World Cup
Rugby union’s World Cup is relatively young compared to other major sports (the first edition was held in 1987), meaning it is host to all manner of odd foibles.
New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and England are the only four nations to have lifted the Webb Ellis Cup. While the winner’s circle is small, it is particularly strange that Irish rugby fans have never seen their nation progress past the World Cup’s quarter-finals.
Before the 2007 tournament — held in France — Ireland were spoken of as potential dark horse winners. Yet misguided preparation and a problem with accommodation saw them eliminated in the pool stage. In 2011, they were outplayed by Wales in the quarter-finals and 2015 saw an injury-depleted side fall to Argentina at the same stage.
Ireland have never made it past the quarter-finals at the Rugby World Cup. (Warren Little / Getty Images)
The 2019 tournament should have been the moment but Ireland were crushed 46-14 in a deflating defeat to New Zealand, again in the last eight. The 2023 rematch is widely thought to be among the best the sport has ever seen, but Ireland lost 28-24, thanks in part to Jordie Barrett holding Ronan Kelleher up over the line in the 72nd minute, preventing Ireland from scoring a crucial try.
Ireland have reached the World Cup quarter-finals eight times, but have never progressed further.
Carl Anka
The England men’s national football team
Is there a more obvious contender than the England national football team?
Despite giving the world the beautiful game and boasting the world’s richest league in the Premier League, the Three Lions have only won the World Cup once, and even that was on home soil. Less than 10 years after 1966, England failed to even qualify for World Cups in 1974 and 1978, and repeated that unwanted feat in 1994. Despite boasting a “golden generation”, they failed to get past the last eight in both 2002 and 2006, before being dumped out after just two games in 2014 en route to finishing bottom of the group in Brazil.
Gareth Southgate went some way to restoring pride in the country’s national team, with his side reaching the semi-finals in 2018, although they went on to lose to Croatia in a game they arguably should have won. As far as the European Championship is concerned, after a humiliating exit to Iceland in Euro 2016, Southgate managed to reach the final of Euro 2020, but England lost on penalties at Wembley to an Italy side who have not reached the last three World Cups. In 2024 they were losing finalists yet again in Berlin against Spain.
England’s crestfallen players following their Euro 2024 final loss to Spain. (Stefan Matzke – sampics / Getty Images)
Southgate did lift England’s penalty curse, beating Colombia in 2018 and Switzerland in 2024, but England’s dismal record from spot kicks has seen them lose seven and win just four in major tournaments. They include excruciating exits against West Germany in 1990, a unified Germany at Wembley at Euro 96, and Argentina in 1998. England also suffered successive shootout exits against Portugal in 2004 and 2006, and have also lost twice against Italy.
England have now gone an agonizing 60 years without winning a major tournament. Jules Rimet, still gleaming.
Jordan Halford
The South Africa men’s cricket team
So, credit where it is due. South Africa actually won something last year when they upset the odds to beat Australia and claim the World Test Championship at Lord’s.
So, do they qualify as underachievers? Well, the reaction to that win, the joyous celebrations and the tears of players, most notably spinner Keshav Maharaj, highlighted just what a massive moment it was.
Because it was the team’s first major ICC trophy in 28 years and only their second since their readmission following their long exile due to sanctions in response to apartheid.
In that span of almost three decades since they lifted the 1998 Champions Trophy, South Africa became known as “chokers”, due in part to their infamous, comical 1999 World Cup semi-final defeat to Australia and their record of reaching just one final in 50-over and 20-over World Cups from 19 attempts.
South Africa’s men’s cricket team have been branded ‘chokers’. (Gareth Copley / Getty Images)
For a nation that has produced some of the great modern cricketers — Jacques Kallis, Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Hashim Amla, AB De Villiers, Dale Steyn and Kagiso Rabada, to name just a few — it is a pretty shocking record.
And even at this year’s T20 World Cup, they and co-hosts (and eventual winners) India were the outstanding teams in the tournament, yet they managed to lose their semi-final against New Zealand.
Steve Madeley
