Courage and clear ideas, in Paris the Azzurri emerged unscathed from the confrontation with Zidane’s France. The coach has paved the way, but soon risks being left without a federation and with a less strong project.
In the suffering and mistakes in front of the Paris goal, in the flights of Donnarumma beaten only by a ballistic masterpiece, in the melee of the Esposito brothers and in the breathless runs of Frattesi, in the head held high in front of the French siege and in that final encircling the goal of Maignan, in the scream of Bastoni six months after Zenica and in the feeling of having got away but also of having some regrets, in all this in Saint Denis, Mancini’s Italy was born.
The first stirrings had already been heard at the Olimpico after the first-half rumba against Belgium. Then the party in Türkiye, with the suspicion that it was our friend Montella who gave us a hand, dealing with a national team in deep crisis. Now there is also the counter-proof which looks a lot like the light at the end of the tunnel that everyone was waiting to see, the hook in the middle of the sky on which to hang the hopes of rebirth.
All this happened in Paris and the fact that we didn’t lose against Zidane’s France is almost a detail. It was a great Italy, courageous and flexible, a rock and a hard place. Character and the desire to never bow down as the coach had asked us to do by fielding three pure attackers from the start at the home of Olise and his teammates, simply the toughest test possible together with Spain and a few others.
Well, Italy has regained itself and some of the credit squandered in the last disastrous months. Thinking about the quarter-finals of the Nations League is not utopian, but what really matters is that Mancini has shown what he has in mind and, if this is the project, it is worth trying. As long as you don’t commit self-harm, as the entire movement is about to do.
It is possible, indeed probable, that on Tuesday evening Mancini will find himself a technical commissioner without a federation, confirmed by a minister who vows never to talk about sport but who spares no judgments, jokes or interference. Net of the obvious error that accompanied Giovanni Malagò’s candidacy as head of the FIGC, suffering the trial and error that brought him on a collision course with Serie A after the very brief initial honeymoon, forgetting that those who voted for him in June today perhaps wouldn’t reapply for him, well… taking a step beyond all this, the night in Paris said something.
For example, that Malagò perhaps in a gruff way gave Italy the coach they needed. Not out of friendship and not even because those who count are at the Aniene Club, simply because Mancini is one of the few able to launch young people and quickly give everyone the feeling of a breath of fresh air. It would be a mortal sin to nip the cry for novelty and rebirth in the bud, to let instrumental formalisms prevail and overwhelm the substance. The Italy of football, starting from the national team, needs competence, love and stability: is it possible that no one noticed this while watching the Azzurri fight proudly in the Paris night?
