A world champion is to lift the ailing Squadra Azzurra: Gennaro Gattuso is to be Italy's new national team coach - despite a less glorious coaching CV.
15.06.2025, 15:58
15.06.2025, 16:02
SDA
The long-serving AC Milan player, who made a less than glorious guest appearance at FC Sion at the end of his active career, signed on Sunday as Luciano Spalletti's successor. "He is a symbol of Italian football," said the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) in a statement about the new coach.
Cancellations and unavailability
Gattuso is said to have won over the association president Gabriele Gravina at a meeting. Previously, the national team had received a prominent rejection in its search for a successor to the sacked Spalletti. Preferred candidate Claudio Ranieri, the 73-year-old former coach of AS Roma, spoke of a "great honor", but decided otherwise after some thought. He said he would like to concentrate on his role as a consultant at Roma.
As the second hot contender Stefano Pioli, former AC Milan coach, is about to move to Fiorentina, Gattuso moved to the position of favorite. Gattuso won the Cup with Napoli in 2020, but had no major successes with AC Milan, Valencia, Olympique Marseille and Hajduk Split. Gattuso began his coaching career at FC Sion, where president Christian Constantin briefly made him player-coach in 2013 following the dismissal of Victor Muñoz, leaving him without a win in three games.
In addition to the 47-year-old, Fabio Cannavaro (most recently Dinamo Zagreb) and Daniele De Rossi (most recently AS Roma) were also recently among the candidates for the position of "Commissario tecnico". Other prominent Italian coaches such as Carlo Ancelotti (Brazil national coach), Antonio Conte (Napoli) and Massimiliano Allegri (AC Milan) are under contract.
World Cup qualification in jeopardy
After missing out on two World Cup finals in a row, four-time world champions Italy are currently fearing that they will also miss out next year in the USA, Canada and Mexico. In their last game with Spalletti, they only managed a meagre 2:0 against Moldova in the qualifiers last Monday. Winning the group is currently a long way off, with Norway clearly in the lead.
