Roberto Mancini has announced his 31-man squad for Italy’s upcoming friendlies with Albania and Austria.
The Azzurri will face off against Albania on November 16 before travelling to Vienna to face Austria on November 20, giving the Italy squad the chance to get together despite their failure to qualify for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar. The Azzurri’s absence from the tournament has started to grow more painful with the tournament approaching, something Mancini and the players have admitted.
Juventus youngsters Nicolo Fagioli and Fabio Miretti have received the call following their strong starts to the season and Nicolo Zaniolo also returned to the squad. 16-year-old Udinese talent Simone Pafundi will also join the senior team for the first time.
Mancini is now working on overhauling the Italy squad, bringing in the new generation of players ahead of the Azzurri’s next major tournament, likely to be Euro 2024 in Germany.
Below is the full 31-man Italy squad called up by Mancini
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint Germain), Alex Meret (Napoli), Ivan Provedel (Lazio), Guglielmo Vicario (Empoli);
Defenders: Francesco Acerbi (Inter), Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Federico Dimarco (Inter), Emerson Palmieri (West Ham), Federico Gatti (Juventus), Pasquale Mazzocchi (Salernitana), Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta), Rafael Toloi (Atalanta);
Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Nicolò Fagioli (Juventus), Davide Frattesi (Sassuolo), Fabio Miretti (Juventus), Matteo Pessina (Monza), Samuele Ricci (Torino), Sandro Tonali (Milan), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint-Germain);
Forwards: Federico Chiesa (Juventus), Wilfried Gnonto (Leeds), Vincenzo Grifo (Freiburg), Simone Pafundi (Udinese), Matteo Politano (Napoli), Giacomo Raspadori (Napoli), Gianluca Scamacca (West Ham), Nicolò Zaniolo (Roma).
Italy don’t need Palmieri and Toloi.
Wake me up when the world cup is over, I am suffering from deep depression
It’s good to see Pafundi. He is really promising.
Why no udogie or okoli in the squad I know okoli is in the underv21 team
I like seeing Mancini call up this 16 year old and he looks talented. I hope he gets 10 min in one of these matches. I as well want to see Udogie called up. I would not risk Chiesa in these two matches and let him rest till after the World Cup and Euro qualification begins and then throw him in. Anyhow we begin again and some interesting prospects to build Azzurri up again and be challengers.
Lots of combinations there, Like to see Giacomo Raspadori, Nicolò Zaniolo, Chiesa play together up front.
Like to see Barella and Gnoto playing together. Will it be 3-5-3? He should have different systems and rotations otherwise they will see their weaknesses. Pity they are not at the world cup, all it was was one kick and he ballonned it to make it look like Baggio in 1994 playing against Brazil.
so nice of Italy to BOYCOTT QATAR 2022
what?
would like to see Casale and Romagnoli in set-up ..they look pretty solid combo for Lazio so far
again would like to stress how disappointed in Italy’s no show at the world cup. I always considered Italy “the salt” of world cup tournaments, the world cup has no flavor without Italy. the drama, suspense & opera orchestra as no national team in the world put a performance of such but Italia.
what a shame mancini that you have failed miserably, so what Italy won the euros ‘2020! your awful mistakes during qualifications were unacceptable. to me there is no world cup for me as there’s no Italy!
i am taking a break for a month to sleep!