Italy archives a 2025 characterized by brilliant results from a sporting point of view, as evidenced by the many medals won in the various world championships, the triumphs in the Davis Cup and BJK Cup, the Slams brought home by Jannik Sinner, the various successes in the World Cup. However, there has been no shortage of great disappointments during this season and so OA Sport awarded the Oscar for the flops of the competitive year which is coming to an end.
OSCAR OA SPORT 2025, THE FLOP OF THE YEAR
FLOP OF THE YEAR: SETTEBELLO (WATER POLO)
The worst Settebello of the last sixteen years: seventh place at the World Championships, we have to go back to the disastrous edition of Rome 2009 to find a sad eleventh position, which was then the prelude to the world championship triumph two years later. In Singapore we admired one A national team that was not very brilliant and convincing, at times subdued and with little sparkle, which faded in a quarter-final with defeatist tones and in fact never started.
Italy ends up 3-1 down against Greece after six minutes, it is imprecise in numerical superiority and in counterattack, it has no impact and then everything ends up the colossal naivety committed by Iocchi Gratta: knee against Argyropoulos, final expulsion, penalty against and four minutes in numerical inferiority. The Hellenic team rose to 7-1 and in fact the match ended well in advance, confirming the elimination of the Azzurri from the tournament.
Our national team was back in the water after serving a suspension for the protest staged at the Paris 2024 Olympics, but the return was truly tearful and well below expectations. An important change of pace from Sandro Campagna’s men will be urgently needed, and it will happen as early as January an opportunity for revenge at the European Championships: the journey towards the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics gets underway.
SECOND PLACE: ITALY MEN’S BASKETBALL
The ambitions on the eve of the great seasonal event were not the greatest and a few too many injuries during the approach had somewhat clipped the wings of our national team, which nevertheless managed to become the protagonist of an excellent group stage at the European Championships: after the initial defeat against Greece, in fact, the Azzurri managed to overcome Bosnia Herzegovina, Georgia, Spain and Cyprus, finishing in second place and thus qualifying in a bold manner to the round of 16.
However, the pairing is decidedly unfortunate and the opponent in the first round with direct elimination is La Slovenia of the absolute champion Luka Doncicwho in that match will be unstoppable and an absolute star. Italy will try to stay in the race and will also gradually come back, only to then sink in the final dominated by the Balkans and thus exit the continental reviewthen won by World Champion Germany (they would have been the opponent in the quarterfinals), with much bitterness and many regrets.
An unsatisfactory path that convinced Gianmarco Pozzecco to resign after three years at the helm of the national team, during which he participated in the 2023 World Cup and failed to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. We started again with Luca Banchi, but his debut on the bench was terrible: defeat against Iceland in the first qualifying match for the 2027 World Cup. Luckily the coup was achieved in Lithuania, but the path is uphill: for the moment Italbasket remains ill.
THIRD PLACE: FRANCESCO BAGNAIA (MOTOGP)
Last year he narrowly lost the duel with Jorge Martin and failed to win the third consecutive World Championship, despite the greater number of successes achieved throughout the season. This season, however, the renamed Pecco went to total trouble: he never found the feeling with the Ducati, he went into crisis several times, the agreement with the Borgo Panigale team has weakened and it has been supplanted by Marc Marquezcapable of dominating the championship.
The numbers were mercilessi: only two victories in the Sunday Grands Prix (Austin and Japan) and eight podiums overall, in the last five long races he has never reached the finish line, finishing fifth place in the MotoGP World Championship, also surpassed by Marco Bezzecchi and Pedro Acosta. We need a clear turnaround in 2026, even if there is the risk of playing a separated season at home and with the possibility of a recurring question: where will Francesco Bagnaia race in 2027?
FOURTH PLACE: FERRARI F1
Very poor fourth place in the constructors’ standingswith half the points of McLaren and widely separated from Mercedes and Red Bull. Never really competing for anything important, in total difficulty throughout the season, abandoning the development of the car well in advance. Anonymous, apathetic, helpless, incapable of making a changeappeared without a future. And the introduction of the new regulation in 2026 does not seem to represent an advantage for a team that is far from the glories of its best days.
The Scuderia di Maranello appears a bit adrift, without solid guidance, with few ideas and with little ability to create a truly competitive car. And to think that twelve months ago we fought until the last race for the constructors’ title against McLaren. Lewis Hamilton’s signing has not been prolific: the victory in the Sprint Race in China had deluded, then total nothingness and never a podium in the Grand Prix for the renamed Black King, far from the champion he was.
Two second places and five third places for Charles Leclerc they don’t change the substance that much. The drivers’ complaints, Elkann’s criticisms of the two standard bearers, and the poor communication inside the garage do no good. We need a concrete revolution to dream againthe last Drivers’ World Championship was celebrated in 2007…
FIFTH PLACE: ITALY FOOTBALL
We can talk at length about the questionable World Cup qualification mechanismwe can discuss for hours how South America has qualified 60% of its teams (and could reach 70% in the event that Bolivia passes the inter-zonal play-offs) and the too many places for Asia and North-Central America, we can analyze in detail how Europe has been penalized in numerical terms by the expansion of the world championship compared to the other continents.
Everything can be said, but the regulation was clear from the beginning and Italy doesn’t have much to complain aboutsince he made up for it two resounding defeats against Norway: 3-0 in Oslo and 4-1 in Milan, a total of 7-1 between the two objectively one-way direct clashes against Haaland and co. Second place in group I was the minimum required given the low caliber of Israel (there was a risk of a draw…), Estonia and Moldova.
Few ideas, little talent, fewer and fewer Italians in Serie A, less and less choice. The dismissal of Luciano Spalletti and the hiring of Gennaro Gattuso they brought more liveliness, more grit, more bite, but the technical rate and competitive level cannot change overnight. Now the playoffs in the spring: first the semi-final against Northern Ireland, then the possible final away against Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina. Missing the World Cup for the third time in a row would be a huge loss.
ROLL OF HONOR FLOP OF THE YEAR OA SPORT
2015 – National athletics team
2016 – National basketball team
2017 – National football team
2018 – Fabio Aru (cycling)
2019 – National Under 21 football team
2020 – Not assigned
2021 – National fencing team
2022 – National football team
2023 – Not assigned
2024 – National football team
2025 – National men’s water polo team
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