Top 4 players who had the opportunity to play for Italy but didn't
The Italian football team is enduring one of its worst times in its rich history of footballing success. It is a team under transition and it looks like process set to continue for a good amount of time. Their current squad is very weak and they don't have world class players, who can be compared to the likes of Kevin De Bruyne or Sergio Ramos.
Their talisman, Gianluigi Buffon has retired and their squad can't even be compared with their fellow European giants' squads. Spain and Germany have world class forwards like Diego Costa, Alvaro Morata, Marco Reus and Timo Werner whereas, Italy haven't got many players of such calibre.
The only players who are worth being compared to them are Lorenzo Insinge and Ciro Immobile. However, one of the main reasons for the lack of top quality players is that many of the players have rejected Italy, to instead represent the countries of their birth. Quite a few of the present superstars have been approached by Italy, only to be rejected.
Italy sits on the 20th spot in the FIFA rankings, finding themselves behind the likes of Mexico and Wales, countries which don't have a lot of stars. They are only marginally ahead of Peru and given the recent form of both the countries, they could slip behind Peru, as well.
However, Italy could have been in a much better position had, a few of the players accepted to play for them. These players could have saved Italy from embarrassment and possibly, helped them to qualify for the World Cup.
Now, we shall have a look at 4 players who could have represented Gli Azzurri.
#4 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
The Gabonese international had the choice of representing 1 country from 4 countries! That is an option that most players (perhaps none) don't have. And the Arsenal star chose the least attractive of all the options, Gabon. Born in France, he played a friendly for France U21 before switching allegiance. He was invited to play for the Italy U19 team and could have played for Spain because he held Spanish Citizenship.
However, he chose Gabon because his father played for and captained Gabon. Currently, he is one of the best African players and has scored 24 times in 57 games for The Panthers.