After unscrupulous Mancini departure
Italy’s coach faces delicate debut with national pride
September 9, 2023, 2:01 p.m
Because Saudi Arabia is calling, European champion coach Roberto Mancini surprisingly leaves the Italian national soccer team. Luciano Spalletti, who is immediately under a lot of pressure, is appointed as his successor. He tries national pride and a memory of his mother.
Luciano Spalletti immediately gave the Italian football soul some caresses. The new national coach raved about the “honor” of wearing the azure blue jersey and said he wanted to “make history” with it. But nice words alone won’t help Italy’s national team: After Roberto Mancini’s chaotic departure, Spalletti has to deliver immediately in the European Championship qualification – otherwise there is a risk of another tremor after two missed World Cup tournaments. That it was on Saturday (8.45 p.m./DAZN and in the ntv.de live ticker) in Skopje against North Macedonia, the very supposed football dwarf who spoiled the Italians’ ticket to Qatar in the 2022 World Cup qualifying playoffs, creates additional explosiveness in Spalletti’s debut.
Before the 64-year-old gathered his national players together for the first time this week, he told a story from his childhood, specifically about Italy’s “game of the century” against Germany in the 1970 World Cup semi-final. After the Azzurri’s 4-3 win after extra time, the then eleven-year-old Luciano asked his mother to sew him an Italian flag, “as big as possible” to celebrate the victory. He now wants to take this flag with him when he sits on the Italian bench for the first time so that today’s children can also dream.
Spalletti also knows that Skopje is not about the glory of the World Cup final, but rather more mundanely about points in qualifying for Euro 2024 in Germany. And yet he grabs his footballers for the honor. “This is not an ordinary jersey,” the coach made clear. The blue camisole, the maglia azzurra, must be like a second skin. “We have to shout how lucky we are to be able to wear this jersey!”
Mancini dumped Italy “without any scruples”
This can be understood as a swipe at his predecessor Mancini, who left the team completely unexpectedly in the summer to take over the selection of Saudi Arabia. For the proud Italians, the 2021 European champion coach has become a money-hungry traitor. “This new Italy deserves special affection because it was dumped without scruples on a summer night like a dog on the motorway,” wrote the “Gazzetta dello Sport” full of bitterness towards the 2021 European champion coach.
Now it’s up to Spalletti, who led SSC Napoli to their first championship title in three decades last season and then actually wanted to take a year off. But he couldn’t resist the association’s call. “Maybe I’m not the best possible coach for the national team,” he flirted and at the same time promised: “But I will definitely be the best possible Spalletti.”
Gianluigi Buffon, who became head of delegation after the end of his active career, will be at his side in the future. Right from his first public appearances, Gigi won Italian football hearts again. “One of the monuments of our history is finally returning home,” enthused association president Gabriele Gravina. The 45-year-old Buffon can hardly wait to be on the sidelines for the Azzurri. “It’s clear that I can’t feel anything other than passion and strong emotions,” he said.
A win in North Macedonia would now be “fundamentally important” for Italy after three points from two games in qualifying, as Spalletti said, also in order to conquer the demons of the past. The 0-1 defeat against that opponent in the playoffs for the 2022 World Cup marked the low point of the Mancini era, with Italian newspapers recalling the “Nightmare of Palermo” with horror. Buffon, who was not there at the time, nevertheless said: “We no longer want to think about the past, but rather about the present and the future.”