For the second time in a row, Italy will not play the World Championship. And the disappointment is perhaps even greater because the one in Qatar will be the first played in the autumn and will end in a Christmas atmosphere, multiplying the feeling of celebration that only a world football tournament can give. There will not be the Azzurri to cheer on, so every Italian football lover can choose whether to bet on countries of great tradition or on outsiders and debutantes. For those who have not completely surrendered to the fact that we will not see Donnarumma, Verratti and Bonucci on the field, there will be some players from allegedly Italian origins. Looking at the list of those called up (among which those from Ecuador are still missing), the first thing that catches the eye is that not so many players have blood ties with Italy, as a direct result of the strong change in the flow of migrations in recent decades. Nevertheless, there are some names worth listing, such as Jean-Charles Castelletto from Cameroon, defender of Nantes born in France to a Friulian father and Cameroonian mother, or Lucas Cavallini from Canada, son of an Argentine emigrant of Italian origin. Among the many stars of Brazil there is Gabriel Martinelli, an Arsenal lineman in possession of the Italian passport through his father’s line. Also in South America, there is a strong presence of footballers of Italian origin in Uruguay. The goalkeeper Fernando Muslera, who also defended the posts of Lazio, has family members from the province of Savona; Matias Vecino, who just today plays with the Capitoline team, has Molise origins, more precisely from Torella del Sannio; Edinson Cavani, who wore the Palermo and Naples shirts and whose paternal grandfather is from Maranello. In Argentina, there is the defender German Pezzella, formerly Fiorentina, whose family comes from Frattamaggiore, in the province of Naples. Also, with the Albiceleste there are the stars Lionel Messi and Angel Di Maria: the first has a paternal great-great-great-great-great-grandfather from Recanati, the second has the Italian passport thanks to his ancestors. Finally, there is Nicola Zalewski, wing back of the Polish national team and born in Italy from parents who emigrated from Poland at the end of the 1980s.