Italy CT Roberto Mancini insists he’ll be forced to look for more Oriundi for La Nazionale and believes those who criticised his call-ups speak despite ‘knowing nothing.’
The Azzurri CT spoke at Sky Sport on Wednesday, days after a 2-0 win over Malta in the Euro 2024 qualifiers.
“We have an old guard, which is very old according to many, but not me,” he said.
“The problem is that they play many games, so when they arrive here, they are tired. I’ve been trying to call young players, but the problem is that they often don’t play for their clubs.”
Questioned on why he didn’t call the likes of Nicolò Zaniolo and Mattia Zaccagni, he replied: “There are valid motivations, everyone speaks knowing nothing.”
When the journalists insisted, trying to know more about his decisions, Mancini looked irritable: “This is not the right moment to do so. The door is open to everyone. I’ve called players who hadn’t played for Italy for a long time.”
The big news for Italy during the international break was Mateo Retegui. The 23-year-old was born in Argentina but has an Italian passport, so he is eligible to play for the Azzurri.
The Tigre forward scored two goals in his first two games for Italy and Mancini confirmed more players born abroad but with an Italian passport – the so-called Oriundi – will be called up in the coming months.
“We’d be happier if we could find players in Italy. Unfortunately, this is not the case now,” said Mancini.
“Among the top seven clubs in Italy, only Lazio have an Italian centre-forward, Ciro Immobile. Everyone has his own idea, but I don’t care much. If we find suitable players, we evaluate them and make decisions.
“Retegui is a young lad, he needs time and if he came to Europe or even Italy, as I am reading, it would be an advantage.”
Italy collected one win defeat against England and a win over Malta in the first two games of the Euro 2024 qualifiers.
The Azzurri return to action on June 15 against Spain in the Nations League semi-finals.
The reality is that since the euro, we have struggled to put our best players on the pitch at the same time. And yet still, we reduced a full strength England side to being relevant on two corners, and then resorting to Parking the bus and time wasting.
We all know we didn’t qualify for the last world cup, we don’t need to know anymore than that.