Original Puma training shirt Italy World Cup 2014

The Italian national football team is a team of football players that represent Italy in international matches. The nickname is La Squadra Azzurra (The Blue Team) or the Azzurri (Blauwen) derived from it.

Italy became world champion four times. 1934, 1938, 1982, 2006 and once European champion in 1968. A tradition within the Italian national football team is that the player with the most played matches for the team is automatically the captain.

On the occasion of the centenary of the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio, the Italian selection played a friendly match against a FIFA world team on 16 December 1998 in the Olympic Stadium. The duel led by French referee Rémi Harrel is considered an official match for the Italian league; for example, attacker Marco Delvecchio made his official debut for the Azzurri. He came in at halftime for Filippo Inzaghi (Juventus FC). Italy won the jubilee competition 6-2 with hits from successively Filippo Inzaghi, Eusebio Di Francesco, Diego Fuser and Enrico Chiesa (3). Gabriel Batistuta and George Weah scored for the world team.