In the dictionary, the feminine noun “selecção” is defined as “team formed by a group of athletes or players chosen because they are considered the best or the most capable”. If we add “national” to that name, then we intend to choose a national team that is the group with the most capable athletes from the country in question. In Italy, the concept is being taken to the extreme.
Today, being an Italian citizen and playing football is enough to be called up to the national team. The scenario is caricatured, but it’s not that far from the truth. Coach Roberto Mancini has called unknowns to be observed for the national team – some younger, others not so much. Some without senior football in their legs, others with modest careers.
Now, there will be another one. Andrea Compagno will be called up to the Italian national team, information given by Mihai Stoica, director general of Steaua, the Romanian club where the striker plays. Mancini himself spoke about the player a few hours ago. “I’ve been following him for two years. He always plays and scores goals. It is a possible extra solution for the national team. He plays a role that we lack. He is young and the expectation is that he will evolve ”, he pointed out, quoted by Sky Italia.
Compagno, 26, has never played in Serie A. Or B. Or even C. The best he has achieved in Italy is playing in the fourth division. Then he played in … San Marino. Now, he is a striker for Steaua, where he has scored 12 goals in 22 games.
If those who play in the Euromillions are entitled to win it, those who play football are entitled to be part of the Italian national team. With Mancini that’s how it works. And this is the “Euromillions” by Andrea Compagno.
“Let’s look everywhere”
The story of this almost two-metre “pine tree”, born in Palermo, is bizarre, because he has had a more than modest career. Still, this call cannot be seen as a total surprise.
With the debacle in the Italian national team, which has not been to the last two World Cups, Roberto Mancini has taken very seriously the premise according to which the national team is open to all footballers – something coaches like to refer to as charm, but which in practice is far from the truth.
A comment from a reader of the site Football Italia says, with humor, that Mancini went from one extreme, never looking at new players, to the other, looking at half the country. And that is one way of defining what is at stake.
It is true that Mancini debuted Zaniolo and Tonali in 2019, even before either of them played in Serie A, and Simone Pafundi at the age of 16, more recently, but the purpose is being taken much further.
Before Compagno, the coach had already carried out two internships with “unknown” athletes. Two of them even play in Portugal: Bamba, defender/midfielder for Vitória, and Ndour, midfielder for Benfica, who has been playing mainly for the B team.
“We will look everywhere for young and unknown players. In the past, there was a lack of defenders and midfielders, but today we don’t have great players in the most advanced positions. And we are trying to find them”, said Mancini, in an explanation that justifies the training camps with unknown athletes, but also the call for Campagno, a player who can compensate for the lack of forwards.
“The problems are serious. Immobile is out and Raspadori possibly too. Almost all of our strikers have played very little in recent months. We don’t have a starter, with the exception of Gnonto, who can play as a striker. Scamacca returns from injury, Belotti plays very little. In attack we have problems, but not because there is no talent. They have to play – and they don’t.”
It is in this context that Campagno should enter the equation. And Gigi Becali, Steaua’s eccentric owner, is already rubbing his hands with what he can do – read receive – with a striker who will surely rise in value once his name leaves Mancini’s mouth.
For the duels against England and Malta, the first two in qualifying for Euro 2024, Compagno will have to be present – Mancini left him in the air, Stoica confirmed it in a pre-call inconfidence.
And, at the age of 26, this could be a turning point in the dream of someone who says he always wanted to play in Serie A and whose context where he comes from, very unprofessional, even gave him the honesty and openness to say, without shame, that his favorite club is Inter.
