I dunno a better place to ask this question, but what's the requirements for South American players to be eligible to apply for Italian passports?
I was just thinking about for future years - doesn't seem to be hurting us right now in 2023-'24 - that we only have three South American players in the squad. Think back across our history, of course the treble team in 2010, and those teams had several South American players (esp. Argentines) around. We have a rich legacy with South American players, and of course South America is a huge hotbed of talent. Only seeing three South American players in our squad feels like not doing our job scouting the continent better, but when you have a two player non-EU max limit, obviously that's pretty fuckin' restrictive. Now, given that our three South Americans include Lautaro and Cuadrado, who have played in Italy for years, I'm guessing they've already received proper clearance and don't count against our quota (Cuadrado's gone after the season anyway). The other is Augusto who is a dual-Brazilian and Italian citizen so he's cleared too. The only non-EU player (I'm assuming) we have right now is Buchanan. In any case, I've never looked into what the process is for South Americans in Italy so this would be something helpful to know.