Roberto Mancini left in Italian – Kommersant

The head coach of the Italian national team Roberto Mancini, under whose leadership she became the champion of Europe in 2021 and did not lose 37 matches in a row, setting a world record, voluntarily left his post. This happened ten months before the start of the final part of Euro 2024 in Germany, where the Italian team has yet to break through in order to defend their title.

The fact that Roberto Mancini on Saturday late evening resigned from his post as head coach of the Italian national team, reported on his website football federation of this country (FIGC). The reasons for this step are not yet known, but it is specified that the parties completed cooperation by mutual agreement, and Mr. Mancini’s successor will become known in the coming days.

By all accounts, the decision of the 58-year-old specialist is unexpected.

In particular, Renzo Ulivieri, president of the Italian Coaches Association, called him a surprise. “Until we understand the reasons for what happened, it is useless to say something,” said Mr. Ulivieri.

Indeed, the resignation of Roberto Mancini seemed to be nothing foretold, although the results of the Italian team under his leadership looked contradictory. Having joined the national team on May 14, 2018, literally the day after the termination of the contract with Zenit St. Petersburg, which, following the results of a single season under the leadership of Roberto Mancini, took only fifth place in the Russian Championship, he quite unexpectedly took first place with her at the European Championship in 2021. Then the Italians first went through the qualifying tournament flawlessly, winning all ten matches in the group with a total score of 37:4, and then successfully held the final stage. At the group stage, they defeated the Turks, the Swiss and the Welsh, in the 1/8 finals they beat the Austrians, in the 1/4 finals – the Belgians, and in the semi-finals and finals in the penalty shootout they coped with the Spaniards and the British, ending the regular time of these matches in a draw 1: 1. Also on account of the wards of Roberto Mancini are two bronze medals in the League of Nations (2020/21, 2022/23).

In October 2021, in the semi-finals of the League of Nations against the Spaniards, Italy’s record long unbeaten streak of 37 matches was interrupted, in which they scored 30 victories and drew seven times. (The previous record – 35 matches without defeat – in 1994 was set by the Brazilian team, and in 2008 the Spanish team repeated). After that, the Italians failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, taking second place in their qualifying group behind the French and sensationally losing in the first round of the play-offs to the North Macedonia team. Thus, Squadra Azzurra, which had not been in Russia before in 2018, was left without a world championship for the second time in a row, but Mancini, having received a portion of criticism, continued to work.

The qualifying tournament for Euro 2024, the final part of which will be held in Germany, is unlikely to be easy for the Italians.

They ended up in the same group with England, Ukraine, North Macedonia and Malta, having managed to play two matches at the moment (with the Maltese – 2:0 and the British – 1:2).

But in order to guarantee themselves a performance in the final stage already at the end of the group stage, they need to take at least second place in their group, and from this point of view, the next two matches with North Macedonia (September 9 away) and Ukraine (September 12 at home) are extremely important.

It is still difficult to name a successor to Roberto Mancini. It is possible that they will be an experienced specialist – for example, Luciano Spalletti, who recently left Napoli after winning the Italian championship, or Antonio Conte, who led the Italian national team from 2014 to 2016 without much success. An alternative to this option could be to appoint a younger manager, such as Fabio Cannavaro, 49, whose Benevento were eliminated from the second division of the Italian championship to the third, or Gennaro Gattuso, 45, who now works for the Spanish Valencia.

Evgeny Fedyakov