Roberto Mancini named new Italy national team coach
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Incoming Italy coach Roberto Mancini waving to photographers following the wedding ceremony of Manchester City and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and Alessia Elefante at the Chiesa Madre di San Giorgio Martire in Locorotondo, on July 24, 2026.
PHOTO: REUTERS
ROME – Former Italy boss Roberto Mancini will return for a second spell as national team coach, Italian Football Federation (FIGC) president Giovanni Malago said on July 28, while Claudio Ranieri will take over as technical director.
The 61-year-old will replace Gennaro Gattuso, who left the post in April following a World Cup qualifying defeat by Bosnia and Herzegovina, the third time in a row the four-time world champions had failed to reach the global showpiece event.
Malago announced the appointment during a Federal Council meeting.
“Mancini is the coach,” he said before confirming the decision at a press conference.
“I believed that the best person to become head coach was Roberto Mancini,” Malago told reporters.
Mancini guided Italy to the European Championship title in 2021. He led the Azzurri in 58 matches during his first spell and at club level has managed among other sides Inter Milan, Fiorentina and Manchester City, where he spent three years and guided them to their first Premier League title in 2011-12.
Technical director Paolo Maldini and adviser Leonardo resigned from their roles on July 27 after their primary candidate for the Italy coach’s position, Andrea Pirlo, had his appointment blocked due to his ties to a Russian betting firm.
Former City boss Pep Guardiola, who was the FIGC’s first choice to take charge of the national team, turned down the job in July.
Ranieri will take up the role of FIGC technical director, replacing Maldini.
The 74-year-old coach, who famously led Leicester City to a shock English Premier League title in 2016, will oversee technical operations and elite football development across Italy’s national team structures.
“I needed someone with whom I could share the decision on the coach, because without that shared view, my reasoning would have carried little weight,” Malago said.
“So consequently, today we have a new coach and a new technical director for Italy.”
The move comes days after both figures agreed to take on the roles as part of a major overhaul of the national team management.
One of the first tasks for Maldini, who played 126 times for Italy and spent his entire career at AC Milan, when he was appointed technical director on July 11 was to help identify a successor to Gattuso.
But he stepped down just 16 days later, alongside Leonardo, the former Brazil international.
Brazil’s Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti was also contacted but he had a contract till the 2030 World Cup.
Maldini said then: “Before speaking to Pep, I also spoke to Carlo Ancelotti.
“It seemed right to us to start with those we consider to be the best in the world. We need to check their general availability first, and then the rest.”
Several other high-profile coaches who were linked with the vacancy included Thiago Motta and Antonio Conte.
Pirlo, meanwhile, expressed his bitterness on July 27 about the situation which saw him ruled out of the running. “I have followed with great bitterness the debate surrounding my candidacy,” he wrote, while thanking former Milan and Azzurri teammate Maldini and Leonardo for their “esteem and confidence (in me)”. REUTERS, AFP
