On Friday, the Azzurri begin their UEFA Nations League campaign against Belgium at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. After months of soul-searching, controversy and debate, Italy are ready to let football do the talking again as Roberto Mancini kickstarts his second spell in charge. It will be Italy’s first competitive match since a play-off defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina in March sealed a humbling third consecutive failure to reach the World Cup. The four-time world champions have been through something of a revolution since that grim night in Zenica.
This raft of changes came following widespread calls for root-and-branch reform of the Italian game in the wake of a qualifying calamity that ensured an entire generation has grown up without seeing their country at a World Cup. “We went to meet him in Barcelona, we had lunch together, we talked for an entire day. The next name on Maldini’s list was his former team-mate Andrea Pirlo.
Mancini, the architect of Italy’s last major triumph at Euro 2020, is back as head coach, bringing a refreshed squad featuring plenty of young and untested players.
“We have to take the national team back to where it deserves to be,” Mancini said on Monday. He was very tempted,” Maldini told Corriere della Sera. However, Pirlo pulled out of the running when controversy erupted over his role as a global ambassador for a Russian betting company, something he insisted was “exclusively commercial and sporting in nature”. When Mancini’s return was confirmed, Rome-based newspaper Corriere dello Sport published an open letter accusing him of a “betrayal” and saying “apologies are not enough”, while Sky Sport pundit Paolo Condo said his decision to “abandon the national team for a lavish payday” should have been a “road of no return”. “I think it’s right to have young players so we can get to know them directly, because that’s the most important thing to have a very strong squad in the future,” Mancini said.
