Italian football went through a very tough period in the previous decade but it is slowly climbing up to the top according to the national team manager Antonio Conte.

Italian clubs were regarded as the finest in the world during the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, rising TV money helped the Premier League to attract a number of stars towards the turn of the century. Even though the Premier league was not able to compete with the Italian league in terms of trophies won on a European scale, the English league was largely seen as the best competition in the world.

The domination now is being conducted by the Spanish league, butConte reckons that the tables are turning in favour of the Italians once again. Juventus reached the Champions League final last season when they were narrowly beaten by Barcelona, who were the huge favourites ahead of the competition. Juventus are now on a winning run of more than 13 matches and it has seen them claim to top of the Italian Serie A from an improbable position only a few months ago. Conte says that the Italian FA has taken similar steps to that of Germany 15 years ago. This means investing in the youth and it will pay dividends in the future according to the former Juve boss.

“We’re on our way back to the top. The clubs have started to invest in youth football again, and the association has launched good, ambitious development projects.We are now in a very exciting period, which I would compare with where Germany were about 15 years ago, when the German FA began to step up training centres in every region.And we all know how well that project turned out, with Germany winning the 2014 World Cup with the players who were just kids back then,”said Conte.