After four months, the national team is back on the pitch, starting its journey as reigning European champions in the EURO 2024 qualifiers: the Azzurri restart from Naples with the match against the most formidable opponents in the group, England, (Stadio ‘ Diego Armando Maradona’, Thursday 23 March – 8.45 pm) to then face Malta away (Ta’ Qali Stadium, Sunday 26 March – 8.45 pm). Two matches that open a 2023 full of commitments, from qualifying for the continental tournament that will be played next year in Germany (the group, which also includes Ukraine and North Macedonia, will end in November), to the Nations League Finals in program in mid-June in the Netherlands.
Coach Roberto Mancini has called up 30 players, who will meet on Sunday 19 March at the Federal Technical Center in Coverciano: first call-up to the national team for Lecce goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone, for Turin defender Alessandro Buongiorno and for the forward of Club Atletico Tigre Mateo Retegui. The players called up under Mancini’s management thus become 102, with Falcone and Buongiorno having already taken part last December in the rally dedicated to players of national interest. Matteo Darmian and Alessio Romagnoli also return to wear the blue shirt, absent respectively from March 2018 and November 2020.
The Azzurri will train on Monday and Tuesday at the Federal Technical Center and then leave on Wednesday for Naples, from where, at the end of the match against England, they will go directly to Malta.
ALL THE EVENTS PLANNED IN NAPLES. Italy returns after 10 years to play in Naples, where 31,000 tickets have already been sold for the match against England (click here for all the info). To welcome the national team, the city will be tinged with light blue: from the afternoon of Tuesday 21 March, at around 6 pm and until dawn the following day, and again on the following two evenings (22 and 23), the Municipality of Naples – on indication of the mayor Gaetano Manfredi – will illuminate two of the symbolic places of the city, the Maschio Angioino and the Fountain of Neptune in Piazza Municipio with Azzurro.
Upon arrival at the Central Station on Wednesday 22 March, a delegation from the national team led by FIGC president Gabriele Gravina and made up of members of the technical staff and players will also go to the ‘Santobono’ pediatric hospital in Naples. The Azzurri will visit the neurosurgery, neurology, neuropsychiatry and neurooncology departments to give the young patients balls, scarves and other gadgets from the national team. The visit follows a process undertaken for years now by the FIGC, which has led the national team to meet the patients of the pediatric hospitals of the cities hosting the match. The pre-match also includes the two official conferences of the teams at the stadium: at 6.45 pm Mancini, at 8 pm Southgate, while the last training session is scheduled for the morning of 22 March for both national teams in their respective Technical Centres, Coverciano and St. George’s Park. At the end of the press conference reserved for Italy, the Mayor of Naples Gaetano Manfredi will hand over the city’s medals to President Gravina, coach Mancini and the captain of the Azzurri in the match.
A series of public involvement activities will be planned at the stadium, to create the best atmosphere for a challenge that awarded the European Cup to Wembley less than two years ago; the brand theme of the Italian national football team will also make its official debut alongside the Azzurri at the ‘Maradona’. Presented on 2 January together with the new Scudetto logo, it is a real musical system, divided into various elements: the sound logo, which in 3″ summarizes the passion for the Azzurri and the Azzurre, the declinations for the various physical and digital touchpoints , up to the complete piece, entitled ‘Azzurri’, composed and produced by Enrico Giaretta and Maurizio D’Aniello and embellished by the voice of soprano Susanna Rigacci.Another debut in this competition is that of Oscar, the national team mascot, a puppy Maremma – Abruzzese shepherd with a tender and nice face designed by Carlo Rambaldi, who died in 2012, an authentic master of cinematic special effects, for which he was awarded three Academy Awards.
In the stands there will be a particular representation linked to football activities in the city: the FIGC has in fact invited some of the participants to two social projects promoted by the Scholas Occurrentes Pontifical Foundation in Naples, carried out in collaboration with the FIGC Youth and Scholastic Sector. On the one hand, a group of educators and children involved in ‘Pelota de Trapo’ (rag ball) in the Sanità and Scampia districts, which aims to use football, especially among girls, as a means of aggregation, a project in collaboration with ‘ Play for Change’ and ‘Catholic University of Milan’; on the other hand, some young people from the Nisida juvenile institute who participated in the “Zona Luce” project, an educational and training program involving prison police officers, juvenile prison inmates and sports collaborators from local clubs. Finally, the presence at the ‘Maradona’ of about 2000 members of the Neapolitan football clubs affiliated to the FIGC is expected.
During the match, the FIGC will launch the ‘United by the same colors’ campaign on the big screen and on the sideline LEDs, promoted since 2022 on the occasion of the international day for the elimination of racial discrimination (March 21).
The list of summoned
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint Germain), Wladimiro Falcone (Lecce), Alex Meret (Naples), Ivan Provedel (Lazio);
Defenders: Francesco Acerbi (Inter), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Alessandro Buongiorno (Turin), Matteo Darmian (Inter), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Naples), Federico Dimarco (Inter), Alessio Romagnoli (Lazio), Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta), Leonardo Spinazzola (Roma), Rafael Toloi (Atalanta);
Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Davide Frattesi (Sassuolo), Jorginho (Arsenal), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Matteo Pessina (Monza), Sandro Tonali (Milan), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain);
Forwards: Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo), Federico Chiesa (Juventus), Wilfried Gnonto (Leeds United), Vincenzo Grifo (Fribourg), Simone Pafundi (Udinese), Matteo Politano (Naples), Mateo Retegui (Club Atletico Tigre), Gianluca Scamacca (West Ham united).
Click here for the national team schedule
