Mancini quits as head coach of Italy
FIGC received Mancini's resignation on the evening of August 12 and will soon announce the new head coach. Mancini has a contract until 2026 and has just been appointed coordinator of Italy's youth teams - a role intended to give him more power in training and developing talent.
"An important page in the history of the Azzurri has closed, opened in May 2018 and ended with the 2023 Nations League final. Among them is the victory of Euro 2021 with a united collective", the announcement of FIGC has a paragraph.
According to Football Italy, Mancini decided to resign after a series of problems, both personal and collective work in the team.
The 58-year-old coach went through a difficult few months on an individual level, having lost both team leader Gianluca Vialli and close friend Sinisa Mihajlovic to illness.
Assistant Alberico Evani left the coaching staff because he was not satisfied with Mancini's recall of Leonardo Bonucci - the central defender of the Euro 2020 championship campaign but had declined and could no longer maintain top form. A few days ago, it was the turn of two assistants Attilio Lombardo and Nuciari to move to other roles.
FIGC is said to be behind the decisions to push Mancini's assistants away to bring in new faces, including two players Andrea Barzagli and Gianluigi Buffon. In particular, Buffon will most likely take on the role of leader, which is vacant after Vialli's death.
Technically, Mancini received a lot of criticism when Italy missed the 2022 World Cup and could not win the UEFA Nations League 2023. For the above reasons, Football Italy commented that the 58-year-old leader left the Italian team after leaving the Italian team. Five years in power is not surprising.
On May 14, 2018, Mancini was appointed head coach, not long after Italy lost its place in the 2018 World Cup to Sweden in the play-off match. But he followed this same path, even though he had just won Euro 2020. The 0-1 loss to North Macedonia at home to Renzo Barbera, in Palermo in the play-off semi-final made Italy absent from the World Cup for the second time in a row. Cup.
Mancini's greatest success was the Euro 2020 championship - a tournament that took place a year late because of Covid-19, when he and Italy defeated host England 3-2 in a penalty shootout to be crowned right at Wembley. "Azzurri" also entered the Nations League final, lost to Spain in the semi-finals and then won the Netherlands 3-2 in the third place match.
Italy's record under Mancini is 39 wins, 13 draws, nine losses, 130 goals and 49 goals conceded, setting a record of 37 unbeaten matches.
Candidates to replace Mancini include Luciano Spalletti - the coach who just quit his contract with Napoli, Antonio Conte - who is unemployed after leaving Tottenham, and players like Gennaro Gattuso or Fabio Cannavaro.
