Read Football Italia Ad-Free and get access to Exclusive News \u2013 Free Trial \u2013 Click Here<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI have a wonderful memory of the Euros, I remember being at a karting race in Sarno when Italy were playing, and after winning my race my mother and I rushed home as fast as possible because we wanted to watch the final. That was a really beautiful period.\u201d<\/p>\n
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ZENICA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA \u2013 MARCH 31: Players of Italy show their dejection of Italy during the FIFA World Cup 2026 European Qualifiers KO play-offs match between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy at Stadion Bilino Polje on March 31, 2026 in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Photo by Getty Images\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
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Antonelli mourns Italy World Cup absent as stark contrast revealed<\/p>\n
The image of a teenage racing prodigy sprinting home to watch the Azzurri lift the trophy captures something of the hold football has on Italian sporting culture, even for those whose own careers lie elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Antonelli\u2019s comment that Formula 1 is \u201ca sport for amateurs\u201d compared to football, offered with obvious tongue-in-cheek, drew a smile, but his sincerity about the wider national mood was clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really disappointed me not to see the national team qualify for the World Cup,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is one more reason to try to keep flying the flag for Italy in my own field.\u201d<\/p>\n
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It is a sentiment that resonates at a moment when Italian sport is grappling with a painful paradox, a nation that excels across multiple disciplines, from tennis to athletics to Formula 1, yet cannot qualify its football team for the world\u2019s biggest tournament.<\/p>\n
For Antonelli, who has emerged as one of the most exciting young talents in motorsport, the burden of national pride sits comfortably on young shoulders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli has added his voice to the national outpouring of disappointment following Italy\u2019s World Cup elimination, saying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[16007,221009,49,48,578,576,577,4996,222147,25251,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-580228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-antonelli","9":"tag-bosnia","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-f1","13":"tag-formula-1","14":"tag-formula1","15":"tag-italy","16":"tag-italy-world-cup","17":"tag-kimi-antonelli","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}