Napoli winger Matteo Politano courted controversy with his cryptic reaction to the Italy exit at EURO 2024, hinting at his irritation with being left out.
The Azzurri were knocked out of the tournament in the Round of 16 this evening following an embarrassing 2-0 defeat to Switzerland, with goals from Bologna man Remo Freuler and Ruben Vargas.
In the wake of the loss, Politano posted a cryptic message to his Instagram Stories.
It was only an emoji of a shrug with a smirking face, with no text.
This can be interpreted a number of different ways, but evidently the 30-year-old was upset at being dropped from the Italy squad for this tournament.
It was particularly galling when seeing players used out of position to cover his role in a 4-3-3 formation.
Politano had been an integral part of the Napoli side that won the Scudetto under Luciano Spalletti, so the player was naturally upset at being snubbed by the same coach for the Nazionale.
It is true that Napoli had a disastrous campaign this season, but Giovanni Di Lorenzo kept his place in the starting XI.
Politano scored nine goals with 10 assists in 48 competitive games for the Partenopei this term.
His record for Italy is not bad either, scoring three times in 12 senior caps along with one assist.
Politano message
He’s right. El sharraway starting this game is all you need to know about this team
Very unprofessional.
Donna
Bellanova-Mancini-Bastoni-DiMarco
Barella-Tonali-Baldanzi
Zaniolo-Pinamonti-Gnonto
WorldCup2026- Let’s Go
Spalletti has to resign.
Pkayers hadno motivation, no grind.nothing
go to the prison in taly get 5 players therwe will win a cup
He could have at least let Bellanouva play and buongiorno for the experience . Italys undoing is always the coach . Always afraid to play young players . This was worse than Macedonia
Atrocious, Spaletti is a coward and a bit dumb.
The Inter block was very disappointing. Barella played 1/2 a game out of 4, Darmian too slow, Di Marco was clueless, Bastoni probably the best out of the 4 but still not at the level of a Chiellini or Bonucci. Time to bring in Bellanova, Udogie, and Buongiorno/Scalvini/Calafiori. Up front, Chiesa a shadow of the player he was, and Rategui and Scamacca totally unfit to wear the azzurri shirt.
The “inter block” were all played out of their normal position. They perform if you play a 3-5-2, like Inter do. Bastoni is only a LCB in that formation, Dimarco Left Wing back, Darmian RCB or RWB, Barella RCM. Then for Italy everything was shuffled around, which is part of the reason they didn’t perform their best. Yes, I wanted to see Buongiorno and Bellanova get minutes and I’m very frustrated player like El Sharawaay got in the squad instead of Orsolini or even Politano..