Hello beautiful? Roberto Mancini Image: AP
Recently equipped with much more power, the Italian national coach Roberto Mancini surprisingly leaves the association. The shock runs deep, the search for the reasons is ongoing. The trail leads into the desert.
Hardly anyone saw this abrupt end coming. Just a few days ago, the Italian Football Association (FIGC) gave national coach Roberto Mancini responsibility for the U21 and U20 youth teams. This was to ensure that Mancini could drive the development of young players and introduce them to the senior squad. That sounded like departure, not farewell.
Matthias Rüb
Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.
The shock is all the deeper after Mancini informed FIGC President Gabriele Gravina of his resignation in an apparently dry email on Saturday. Mancini let the shaken football nation know via social media that he was resigning from his post “for personal reasons”. Artig Mancini thanked the FIGC President and the entire Football Association for the trust placed in him. Mancini also thanked and greeted “all my players and fans” who had “accompanied him over the past five years”. Finally, the outgoing “Commissario Tecnico” assured that he would “always carry the extraordinary victory at the EM 2020 in his heart”.
