Giancarlo Abete has reassured that Cesare Prandelli’s renewal is imminent, as he reflects on Italy’s hopes heading out to the World Cup.
Giancarlo Abete has reassured that Cesare Prandelli’s renewal is imminent, as he reflects on Italy’s hopes heading out to the World Cup.
The CT is starting a second week of preparations at Coverciano with his provisional Azzurri squad today and will later meet with Italian Football Federation President Abete.
The FIGC chief’s presence at the training facilities has led to speculation that Prandelli’s long-awaited two-year contract extension to take him beyond the World Cup will finally be made official with a signature.
“The pen has always been available to sign the renewal, today more so than ever,” Abete has told reporters on the subject on Monday morning.
“The day is long, we expect the situation to resolve peacefully and positively. You journalists are here, you have a lot of appointments today – I will talk with Cesare, but as he has said there are no problems for him signing.
“How have I found Prandelli? I have found him very motivated, we talked about last week at the end of the retreat.
“There is satisfaction for the work done, we have to find the right physical condition and create a group. Now we will focus on the World Cup.
“The signature to silence the rumours of interest from clubs? We have said it for quite some time, when there is a handshake between two people it is an important fact.
“The problem with the renewal has not been in place, we are confident. The interest of clubs does not bother us.”
Abete considered Italy’s mindset heading out to Brazil.
“There is the will to do well, the right determination, we are trying to work in the best conditions, we have done our utmost to get to the World Cup in the best physical condition.
“We have to be confident, because confidence is a key propellant in football, whilst we also know that we are ninth in the FIFA World Rankings and, therefore, there are teams that have done better than us in recent years.
“And we are aware that Brazil, Spain, Argentina and Germany are the four teams with the greatest potential.
“The group or the individual? We can talk of many, we have high quality individuals, but the difference is made by the group. As with the European Championships and the Confederations Cup, for the results the group is important. “
Attention is on Giuseppe Rossi and whether he can prove his fitness in time for a place on Italy’s plane out to South America.
“If he goes with Italy it will depend on technical conditions relating to his condition and the development of the competition.
“Meanwhile, watching the Champions League Final I saw that there were 13 players that can potentially play for Spain, so this means that we need to focus more on Italians.
“The growth and presence of foreigners in our clubs has not let to an improvement in results at international level, on the contrary – it has led to a further issue with our ranking.”
Demetrio Albertini will step down from his role as Vice-President of FIGC this summer.
“Albertini is a quality director and a great friend. I have known for months of his willingness to leave after the World Cup.
“I hope that he will reconsider, he is an important reference point for Italian clubs. Now we have to concentrate on the World Cup, but like I said, I hope he will go back on his decision.”