Roberto Mancini confirms “we’ll probably take Mario Balotelli” for the Italy friendlies, and he’ll talk to Andrea Pirlo about joining his staff.
The former Inter Coach was yesterday confirmed as the new CT of the Azzurri, and he was presented at Coverciano today.
Super Mario hasn’t played for his country since the 2014 World Cup, but given that Mancio was his mentor it’s expected he’ll be recalled for the upcoming friendlies.
Roberto Mancini confirms “we’ll probably take Mario Balotelli” for the Italy friendlies, and he’ll talk to Andrea Pirlo about joining his staff.
The former Inter Coach was yesterday confirmed as the new CT of the Azzurri, and he was presented at Coverciano today.
Super Mario hasn’t played for his country since the 2014 World Cup, but given that Mancio was his mentor it’s expected he’ll be recalled for the upcoming friendlies.
“That’s the best thing about the national team, we won’t have problems like this,” Mancini explained in his Press conference.
“There are a lot of players in Italy, even in difficult times we can find players with quality. We’ll certainly talk with Mario and we’ll probably bring him.
“He’s one of those players who we’d like to see return to what we saw in the European Championships with [Cesare] Prandelli.
“There are a lot of players who can be very useful.
“As for Pirlo, we’ll have to talk to him and see what he wants to do.”
Italy face the Netherlands in a friendly at Juventus Stadium next month, will that be Gianluigi Buffon’s farewell?
“We’ll talk with Buffon about the match in Turin. We haven’t had much time, I only got here yesterday.
"He and [Daniele] De Rossi gave a lot to the national team, we'll talk to them to understand their intentions.
"When we start playing we'll call those in the best condition."
This is Mancio’s first international job, having gone straight from his playing career into club management.
“I don’t think it’ll be a problem not seeing the players every day,” Mancini assured.
“I keep saying there are always good players, maybe it’ll take a bit of time but I think we can put a good team together.
“I don’t know if this will be my most difficult challenge, if you coach a club and you don’t win everyone is angry with you, here there are 50 million people…
“That’s beautiful too though, because if you win something important there’s huge satisfaction. It’s not an easy challenge, but nothing is easy.
“It’s difficult for everyone to agree with the CT, I don’t think it’s that simple. There are a lot of fans and everyone has their own opinion.
“We hope to win an important trophy with Italy.
“It’s hard to say right now how we’ll play, when we train together it’ll give me the opportunity to understand them better.
“I will adapt to their needs, their qualities, then decide what is best for the team.
“I won’t ask for training camps, but if we get the chance we’ll call some youngsters to get to know them a bit better.
“The players are travelling every three days though, it’s not that easy. I think B-teams are a good thing, I hope a lot of Italians will play.
"As for my staff, we haven't had much time but it won't be a big problem."