Juventus' Italian Drought: Just One Italian in Starting XI Against Sassuolo
In a Serie A season already obsessed with lineups and passports, Juventus are about to join the debate in a way that feels jarring for a club that once defined the spine of the Italian national team.
On Sunday night at the Mapei Stadium against Sassuolo, Luciano Spalletti is expected to send out a starting XI with just one Italian. One. And even that comes with an asterisk.
The lone flag-bearer should be Guglielmo Vicario, the summer arrival in goal. Unless Spalletti springs a late surprise, the Tuscan coach will lean almost entirely on foreign talent, forced there by an injury list that has ripped through the Italian core of his squad.
Manuel Locatelli, the heartbeat in midfield and one of only two Italians to start all three league games so far, is gone until 2027 after meniscus surgery. Andrea Cambiaso, who opened the season as a starter, has been sidelined since the first game. Jeff Ekhator, one of the brighter young Italian striker prospects, has barely been seen; his preseason was wrecked by injury and he is still months away from returning.
The back line tells its own story. Federico Gatti, the most obvious Italian candidate to come in, remains behind Gleison Bremer and Jhon Lucumí in the pecking order. His late heroics against AC Milan last weekend might have shifted the mood around him, but not enough to dislodge the established pairing. Barring a last-minute rethink, Gatti will again start on the bench.
On the left, Zeki Çelik has locked down the role in Cambiaso’s absence, starting all three of the opening fixtures. With each passing week, the Italian contingent in the lineup has thinned, until only Vicario is left standing.
If the predicted XI holds, it will be the first time since February 2023 that Juventus have started a match with just one Italian on the pitch. For a mid-table side, it might pass with a shrug. For Juventus, it hits differently.
This is the club that once fed the Azzurri almost by default, the club whose dressing room shaped generations of Italy internationals. Now, with injuries biting and recruitment trends shifting, the most successful club in Italian football is preparing to walk out with a single Italian starter — and one who wasn’t even a Juventus player a couple of months ago.
Vicario, to his credit, already looks and sounds the part. He carries himself like a lifelong Juventino, talks openly about what it means to wear the shirt, and has barely put a glove wrong in his first three league outings. But he is still only about 270 minutes into his Juventus career. For all his early promise, he is a symbol of something larger: an Italian newcomer asked to represent a tradition that used to be spread across half the lineup.
On Sunday, when the teams emerge in Reggio Emilia, the contrast will be stark. Juventus, draped in black and white, carrying a history built on Italian steel, will lean on a group largely assembled from everywhere but Italy — with Vicario, alone, holding the flag. The question is no longer whether it feels strange.
It’s how long this version of Juventus is going to look like that.
