Juventus Faces Italian Dilemma with One Italian in Starting XI
In a Serie A season already obsessed with lineups and passports, Juventus are about to walk into Sunday night with something that looks, to many, almost sacrilegious: a starting XI with just one Italian.
Juventus, Italy’s giant, with barely any Italians
The debate has been bubbling since the opening weeks of the 2026-27 campaign. Some of the league’s biggest clubs have rolled out teams that look more like Champions League all-star squads than standard-bearers of Italian football. Como, the billionaire-backed fairy tale, has already started multiple games without a single Italian on the pitch from the first whistle.
Juventus won’t go that far at the Mapei Stadium against Sassuolo. But they are skirting the edge.
Because of a brutal run of injuries, Luciano Spalletti is expected to send out a side featuring just one Italian player: Guglielmo Vicario in goal. Unless Spalletti springs a late surprise, the 29-year-old will be the lone tricolore in black and white from the opening kickoff.
For Juventus, that is no small detail. If the team sheet lands as expected, it will be the first time since February 2023 that the club starts with only one Italian.
Injuries rip the heart out of the Italian core
This isn’t a philosophical shift so much as a medical bulletin.
Manuel Locatelli, the midfield metronome and one of the few constants in recent years, is gone until 2027 after meniscus surgery. Andrea Cambiaso, who opened the season as a key option on the flank, has been sidelined since the first match. Federico Gatti, the rugged defender who turned into a late-game hero against AC Milan last weekend, still looks set to start on the bench behind Gleison Bremer and Jhon Lucumí.
The result: Italy’s most decorated club is suddenly running short of Italians.
Zeki Çelik has locked down the left-back role in Cambiaso’s absence, starting all three games so far. Up front, one of the more intriguing homegrown prospects, Jeff Ekhator, has barely been seen; his preseason was wrecked by injury and he is not expected back for a couple of months.
Strip all of that away and only two Italians had managed to start all three of Juve’s opening fixtures: Vicario and Locatelli. One is now out long term. The other is left carrying the flag on his own.
A new face as the standard-bearer
That’s where the discomfort really kicks in for many Juventus supporters.
This is Juventus: the club that has long fed the national team, the club that has traditionally blended foreign stars with a hard core of Italian leaders. Seeing only one Italian in the starting XI feels off. Seeing that one Italian be a summer signing who has barely settled in only sharpens the edge.
Vicario has thrown himself into the role. He looks and sounds every bit the Juventino, embracing the weight of the shirt and the expectations that come with it. But he is still only about 270 competitive minutes into his Juventus career. Three games. That’s all.
On Sunday night, though, he may stand as the only Italian voice in the lineup from the first whistle. For a club that once defined the spine of the Azzurri, that image will be hard to ignore.
The question now is simple: is this just an injury-ravaged snapshot in September, or a glimpse of what Juventus will look like for years to come?
