10 Hottest Italian Soccer Players (According to Jessica)

Jessica wrote the first version of this list in May 2008, just before Euro 2008, as a lighter way into Italian football for readers who didn't care much about offside calls. It was an unapologetically biased list from an AC Milan fan, and it became one of the most-read pages on this site.

Eighteen years on, every man on it has retired as a player. Several now run teams of their own, one is a TV pundit, and one led the national team through the worst stretch in its history. So this is the list as it stood in 2008, with what each player actually achieved and where he is in 2026. The club in parentheses is the one he played for in May 2008.

>> The series continues with Part II, Part III and Part IV, the 2010 World Cup edition.

Jessica's 2008 top 10, and where they are now

• Michele Fini (Cagliari). A Sardinian midfielder who came up through the island's clubs and spent 2007 to 2009 at Cagliari before moving to Siena. Jessica thought he looked more like a man who should be modeling Armani suits than chasing a ball. After retiring he went into coaching, mostly as an assistant to Diego López at Bologna, Palermo and Cagliari.
• Giampaolo Pazzini (Fiorentina). A striker nicknamed Il Pazzo, "the madman", which is a pun on his surname. He went on to Sampdoria, Inter, AC Milan and Hellas Verona, won 25 caps and went to the 2010 World Cup. He is retired.
• Gaetano De Rosa (Genoa). Born in Düsseldorf to an Italian family, he came through Napoli's youth teams and was a fixture in Bari's defense for years before helping Genoa back to Serie A in 2007. He is retired.
• Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan). "Rino" was the snarling defensive midfielder who did the running so Pirlo didn't have to: two Champions Leagues and two Serie A titles with Milan, and the 2006 World Cup. As a coach he took charge of Italy in June 2025 and resigned after the team lost the 2026 World Cup play-off final to Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is now head coach of Lazio.
• Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus). He finished 2007-08 as Serie A's top scorer, and he ended his career with 346 goals in all competitions, second among Italians only to Silvio Piola. If you watch Italian football on TV, you'll still see him: he has been a pundit on Sky Sport Italia since 2015.
• Francesco Totti (Roma). A one-club man who scored 307 goals for Roma and is Serie A's all-time leader in assists. Italians have a whole genre of jokes with Totti as the dim-witted punchline, and he beat them to it: he collected the jokes into two best-selling books in 2003 and 2004 and gave the money to a children's charity. He is retired.
• Luca Toni (Bayern Munich). He left Fiorentina for Germany in 2007 after scoring 31 league goals in 2005-06, the first Serie A player to pass 30 in 50 years. He played for thirteen Italian clubs in all and retired in May 2016 after three seasons at Hellas Verona.
• Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid). Captain of the 2006 World Cup team and one of the best defenders of his era, with two Spanish titles at Real Madrid. He now coaches the Uzbekistan national team.
• Paolo Maldini (AC Milan). Jessica's line on him was "Whatever the question is, Paolo, the answer is yes." He played 25 seasons for Milan, won five European Cups and retired in 2009 at 41; you can read about his last game at San Siro. He was a Milan director from 2018 to 2023 and has since worked as a football executive.
• Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan). Jessica's number one. Her husband used to announce "your boyfriend is on" whenever Pirlo appeared during a Milan match. He is widely rated one of the best deep-lying playmakers ever, won the 2006 World Cup and two Champions Leagues, and retired in 2017 at New York City FC. He coaches Dubai United in the UAE.

Yes, that is a lot of AC Milan players. Jessica was a Milan fan, watched more Milan matches than anyone else's, and never pretended otherwise.

2008 club vs. 2026

The Dolce & Gabbana campaign

After Italy won the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Dolce & Gabbana, which also designed Milan's and the national team's off-field suits, photographed five Italy players for an underwear campaign: four of the new world champions plus Manuele Blasi. Three of the five were on Jessica's list.

L-R: Andrea Pirlo, Fabio Cannavaro, Gennaro Gattuso, Gianluca Zambrotta (FC Barcelona in 2008), Manuele Blasi (Napoli in 2008)

L-R: Gianluca Zambrotta (seated), Fabio Cannavaro, Andrea Pirlo, Manuele Blasi, Gennaro Gattuso

The black set was meant to look intimidating ahead of the 2010 World Cup. It didn't help: Italy went out in the group stage in 2010 and 2014, then failed to qualify for 2018, 2022 and 2026.
L-R: Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Manuele Blasi

L-R: Andrea Pirlo, Gianluca Zambrotta, Gennaro Gattuso, Fabio Cannavaro, Manuele Blasi

L-R: Manuele Blasi, Fabio Cannavaro, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Gianluca Zambrotta

The two not on the top 10: Gianluca Zambrotta, a full-back who could play on either side and won two titles with Juventus, has since coached in Switzerland and India. Manuele Blasi, a midfielder who played for Roma, Juventus and Napoli, is now sporting director of FC Paradiso in Switzerland.

D&G ran a second set with five more Italian players, three of them from the 2006 squad (Grosso, Oddo and Amelia):

L-R: Antonio Di Natale (Udinese in 2008), David Di Michele (Torino), Fabio Grosso (Olympique Lyonnais), Massimo Oddo (AC Milan), Marco Amelia (Livorno)

L-R: Antonio Di Natale, David Di Michele, Fabio Grosso, Marco Amelia, Massimo Oddo

L-R: Antonio Di Natale, David Di Michele, Marco Amelia, Massimo Oddo, Fabio Grosso

All five have retired as players and gone into coaching. Grosso is the one Italians remember most: he scored the late goal that beat Germany in the 2006 semi-final and the winning penalty in the final against France. Di Natale scored 29 Serie A goals for Udinese in 2009-10, a club record.

The Azzurri in 2026

If you want names you'll actually see on a pitch now, start with captain and goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma (Manchester City), Inter's Nicolò Barella and Alessandro Bastoni, Sandro Tonali (Tottenham) and Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal). Italy won Euro 2020 (played in 2021). Missing the 2026 World Cup then cost both the coach and the federation president their jobs. In July 2026 the federation brought back Roberto Mancini, the coach who won that Euro.

To see Serie A in person (it's called Serie A Enilive now, after its sponsor), buy tickets on the clubs' official sites. Tickets carry the holder's name, so bring the ID you booked with. Milan and Inter both still play at San Siro in 2026-27, although the clubs have bought it and plan a new stadium next door. Our guides to seeing a match at San Siro and the San Siro museum cover the details.

And for the other side of the story, see Jessica's lists of Italian soccer WAGs.