In the first calls, the new coach will surprise by calling on guys with no experience. The reason? Launch young people and make them wear blue before other federations convince them.
That of Roberto Mancini it will be a return to the future, a leap back and forward in time to try to shorten the phases of the Italian rebirth and at the same time try to lay the foundations for the future. He who in his first reign at Coverciano had called up Zaniolo who had still made zero appearances in Serie A or the teenager Pafundi dressed in blue: not all successful bets, but projections about the future.
The first Mancini after returning home will move along that line with great attention to the new trends in world football. Everyone does it, Italy will do it too: go and get the most promising kids who are Italian or have an Italian passport, they have to choose which national team to serve and it is better to have them here rather than then discovering that they have lost interesting talents and prospects.
It’s one of the missions that the new coach has set himself and he won’t waste time. This is why the list of players called up for the big break with four Nations League matches between the end of September and the beginning of October should not be surprising. Italy cannot afford to snub opponents and the tournament, but at the same time they must make room for boys to be included in a long journey to be selectable for the national team.
Who are they? Some names to expect on the list, which will not be short, that Mancini has prepared: Issa Doumbia (born 2003, Sporting Lisbon), Mohamed Ali Zoma (Nuremberg striker), Samuele Inacio Pià (Borussia Dortmund), Alexander Romano. The latter showed off with Cagliari and chose to give up Switzerland to dress Italian, despite the Swiss pressure. Mancini’s new course began with the awareness that we must act quickly and do well so as not to leave potentially useful talents free.
There are others, closely observed by the FIGC staff and who may be included in the next calls because what counts – according to FIFA rules – is not so much the youth career but rather the presence in the senior national team. And you can only change your mind once, no more. It will make many turn up their noses, the same ones who contested the call of Mateo Retegui, also from Mancini, but it is a job that all federations have been doing for some time now.
There are other profiles to follow. For example Eddy Kouadioa defender who plays for Monza but is owned by Fiorentina and is already a key player in Baldini’s Under 21 team where he could be left so as not to damage a group that is at the moment of truth. A risk, because Kayode also has a passport from the Ivory Coast which woos him: what to do? Sacrifice the needs of the Under 21s to think ahead or wait a month or more?
And then Alphadio Cissewho exploded with the Milan shirt after an excellent season at Catanzaro. Or Koleosho And Ndour. Mancini will have a thousand defects, not that of the fear of working with very young players and launching them. Also for this reason he is perhaps the ideal coach in this historical phase of reconstruction after the world failures. The Nations League will be the first test, without losing sight of the need not to jeopardize the UEFA tournament’s continued existence in Serie A; relegation would mean complicating life in view of the race for Euro 2028 and, in projection, also for the 2030 World Cup.
