Roberto Mancini resigns as Italian national team captain

With ten months to go until the European Championship in Germany, Roberto Mancini is stepping down as national team captain for Italy.

The legend, who won gold with his Italy in Euro 2021, finished with a missed World Cup

A young Italian national team had a renaissance under Roberto Mancini, after the former great player took over the “Gli Azzurri” in 2018. The European Championship gold in 2021 came after a penalty win at Wembley against England and then some probably thought that Italy was on its way to new good times .

But then Italy missed the World Cup – after a huge failure against North Macedonia in the semi-finals of the play-off round in the World Cup qualifiers.

Now he is resigning – in the middle of the European Championship qualification, which has been going on for two rounds. The first match was a 1-2 loss against England, before Malta fought back 2-0. Now a new national team captain needs to take over in time before the EC.

Details: Is now eligible for a move to Saudi Arabia
Gianluigi Longari, sports journalist for Sportitalia, writes that Mancini now has an offer from the Saudi federation to become the new federation captain of the flourishing football country from the Middle East.

The 58-year-old has previously coached Manchester City, Inter, Galatasaray, Lazio, and Fiorentina to name a few.