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New York Times
10-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Luciano Spalletti's abrupt sacking leaves Italy with much reflecting to do
It was professional and dignified, absurd and unprecedented. Luciano Spalletti appeared for his pre-match press conference on Sunday afternoon. He sat down with the forlorn hope of at least taking a couple of questions on Italy's opponents Moldova and the line-up he had in mind for the game in Reggio Emilia. One did come — about the compatibility of strikers Mateo Retegui and Lorenzo Lucca, and whether Bologna winger Riccardo Orsolini has it in him to play false nine. But it was tokenistic. Spalletti knew the only line of inquiry regarded his future. Advertisement An hour before he was due in the auditorium at Italy's training base in Coverciano, a newsflash made it clear this would be a press conference like no other. Sky Italia's yellow ticker reported the breaking news of Spalletti's intention to resign after the Moldova game. It was true he was leaving. But it turned out reports of his inclination to quit were false. Spalletti had already been sacked by Gabriele Gravina, the president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). It was a bizarre scene. Why was Spalletti still in charge? Usually in these cases, a statement is released, an interim coach promoted and the floor handed to Gravina to explain the decision. But Gravina had already spoken in Parma at the Festival della Serie A that morning. He had eulogised Spalletti as 'extraordinary, a noble soul… the finest person I've ever met in football, a gentleman'. Not only for accepting the job in the first place but the way he took the news of being relieved of it. Spalletti's wish had been to continue after Friday's defeat by Norway in Oslo when Italy found themselves 3-0 down at half-time. The 66-year-old did not want to go out like that, and so an awkward compromise was reached whereby he would get to put Italy back on course in their World Cup qualifying campaign — something he achieved with a 2-0 win over Moldova on Tuesday — and then graciously break his contract without seeking a payout and return to his vineyard in the rolling Tuscan hills. Unless Juventus or Fiorentina decide to make him an offer in the coming weeks, Spalletti will finally get to have the sabbatical he left Napoli to go on in 2023. Spalletti was on his farm, La Rimessa, when Gravina picked up the phone and dialled his number that summer. He had just led Napoli to their first league title in 33 years and wanted more time with the family. But his country called, and Gravina would not take 'no' for an answer. He was desperate and rightly considered Spalletti the best man for the job. Advertisement Roberto Mancini had quit — supposedly after having second thoughts about the reshuffle of his staff imposed on him by the FIGC. Mancini was instead clearing the way to accept an offer from Saudi Arabia, a decision he now regrets. 'Mancio' did not leave Spalletti a great inheritance. He left Italy with little chance of catching England in their qualifying group for Euro 2024. They had lost to Gareth Southgate's side in Naples and Spalletti was immediately under pressure to beat Ukraine to the runners-up spot. An extreme generational transition was under way, too. Barely anyone from the team that had become European champions in 2021 remained. Giorgio Chiellini had retired after Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar. Leonardo Bonucci was in his twilight and, after an acrimonious divorce from Juventus, ended his career at Union Berlin and Fenerbahce. Arsenal's signing of Declan Rice cut Jorginho's minutes. Marco Verratti, still only 32, was in Qatar. Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi moved to Toronto FC. Leonardo Spinazzola struggled to come back from the snapped Achilles he suffered nearly four years ago, while Ciro Immobile — the most prolific striker of his generation in Italy — later followed Bonucci to Turkey and joined Besiktas. Spalletti, in other words, had to figure a lot out in a short space of time. Drama was never far away. The police interrupted one of his first get-togethers after a paparazzo, Fabrizio Corona, blew the whistle on a betting scandal that led to long-term bans for Sandro Tonali and Nicolo Fagioli. Qualification for the 2024 Euros was not straightforward either. Ukraine, for instance, believed they deserved a penalty in the 93rd minute of a 0-0 draw, crying foul after Bryan Cristante took out Mykhailo Mudryk. The tension was unceasingly high. Italy's group at the Euros featured Spain and Croatia. A soft opener against Albania in Dortmund was instantly complicated by the sort of mistake Federico Dimarco repeated in this season's Champions League final. Although Italy came back to win, Spalletti had doubts about the same XI's ability to cope with Spain's speed and intensity. Nevertheless, he tried to play them at their own game a few days later. Rather than adapt according to his gut feeling, he treated the game as a test. His team not only flunked it as he had foreseen, but their confidence in his game model was also shattered. Spalletti found himself in a difficult position. In order to play at the rhythm he considered necessary to compete, he had to rotate. But wholesale change looked punitive, and change was also the enemy of chemistry. A vicious cycle began. In Leipzig, Italy dramatically made it to the knockouts with a 98th-minute equaliser against Croatia. It was a moment of euphoria and had the potential to re-energise the group and make the players believe again. Rather than enjoy it, Spalletti went on a mole hunt in the press conference that followed, seizing on an apparently innocuous question about a pact between him and the players, which he considered a damaging leak from inside the camp. Advertisement Elimination came shortly afterwards against Switzerland in Berlin. It was one of the most insipid and emotionless performances ever put on by the national team at a major tournament, the opposite of Italy's display at the same stadium in 2006 when they last won the World Cup. There were, unsurprisingly, calls for Spalletti to go, and he was memorably offended by a foreign journalist who likened the Swiss to a Ferrari and his Italy to a Fiat Panda. Italy's head of communications was told to make a note of the reporter's name for future reference. Gravina rightly felt Spalletti deserved more time. He had only been in the job nine months and had got to work with the players just once in 2024 (the March international break) before the tournament started. Vindication seemed to follow quickly. Italy fell behind after 14 seconds in their first game back after the Euros. Bradley Barcola caught out his club team-mate Gianluigi Donnarumma, who was still wrapping up his gloves at the Parc des Princes. But Italy came back and won 3-1, winning in France for the first time in 70 years. The style with which they played that night also matched the initial expectations of what Spalletti might be able to achieve with the Azzurri. Tonali was back from suspension. Samuele Ricci made the midfield more cerebral. Andrea Cambiaso looked like the picture of a modern hybrid footballer. Strikers Retegui and Moise Kean were beginning to score. Not even the anterior cruciate ligament tears suffered by Gianluca Scamacca and Giorgio Scalvini could stop the blossoming of a new era. Two-nil up against Belgium, only a Lorenzo Pellegrini red card allowed their opponents back into the game to snatch a point. Had Pellegrini stayed on the field, Italy perhaps would have won their Nations League group instead of finishing second on goal difference to France, who beat them 3-1 in the return game at San Siro. It meant playing Germany, not Croatia, in the knockouts. Italy would take the lead in that game at San Siro but lost, and were 3-0 down at half-time in Dortmund, only to stage a heroic but ultimately futile comeback to make it 3-3 on the night. Overall, Spalletti's Italy reflected the worst febrility of his nature, and little of his genius. In the end, this is what disappointed him most. Advertisement A year ago, in the debrief after the Switzerland debacle, he acknowledged a leadership deficit in the post-Chiellini-Bonucci era. His hope was that players like Riccardo Calafiori would fill it. Spalletti wanted others to follow Tonali and Calafiori to the Premier League. Federico Chiesa swiftly did; however, he only started once for Liverpool in the Premier League. Heralded as Italy's next big thing after his goals against Austria and Spain at Euro 2020, Chiesa was overhyped and then badly injured. He has not lived up to expectations. Spalletti has instead had to build around a core of Inter players. One of the excuses he made for Italy's performance at the Euros last summer was that Inter won the league too early and had lost match rhythm going into the tournament. This week, the same players were, by contrast, exhausted after a 59-game season which ended without a treble or a trophy, and with the scars of a 5-0 defeat by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final. That Friday's qualifier against Norway came only six days after Munich shows how relentless the football calendar is today. The Champions League has been expanded. The Nations League is bigger. A Club World Cup awaits. Is it any wonder Inter's players look dead on their feet? Alessandro Bastoni was the one who gave the ball away and played Alexander Sorloth onside for Norway's first goal. The second from Antonio Nusa was a worldie. The third figured as the end for Italy and Spalletti, who had not helped himself in the build-up to the game by falling out with Francesco Acerbi, the veteran defender. Spalletti had called him out at the beginning of the international break for not answering a call-up. The wisdom of clashing with a centre-back who has reserved his best performances for Erling Haaland — at a time when Calafiori and Alessandro Buongiorno were out injured — was questionable, as was picking a fight with someone close to the other senior players in the Italy squad, although Spalletti emphatically denied losing the dressing room. When asked if he had been betrayed, Spalletti paused and read out the names of the FIGC executive team in a thankful tone. He then got up and left. The auditorium applauded. The press appreciated his honesty, his self-criticism, the way he fronted up and held himself accountable above anybody else. Spalletti could undoubtedly have handled some situations better. His adaptation to international football was not seamless and his uncompromising ways made life harder. On the one hand, Italy have underperformed relative to the talent available. On the other, the talent is still not what it was in the 1980s and 90s — even though Italy are the current under-17 and under-19 European champions and finished runners-up at the last Under-20 World Cup. Advertisement It is still early days in qualifying for next year's World Cup. Italy have played two of eight games and while overhauling Norway looks difficult, it is not impossible. That said, changing coach is not enough on its own to restore the national team to greatness. The system must change too. And yet the system seems to think everything is fine. Gravina was recently re-elected president of the FIGC with 98 per cent of the vote. When Italian football looks at itself in the mirror, it still apparently likes enough of what it sees to keep the status quo. After all, there were five Italian teams in the Champions League this season, a reward for finishing first in the UEFA coefficient. But the national team remains a source of dissatisfaction, and reflection is needed. More cracks are appearing in the mirror and if missing one World Cup was bad luck, failing to qualify for three in a row would be something else.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Orsolini happy to be back in Italy squad after ‘disappointment'
Orsolini happy to be back in Italy squad after 'disappointment' Riccardo Orsolini is glad to be back in the Italy squad after 'previous disappointment' and hopes Vincenzo Italiano remains at Bologna. The winger had been in the preliminary group for the EURO 2024 tournament, but was then cut from the final list and snubbed by coach Luciano Spalletti ever since. Advertisement His form became impossible to ignore this season with 15 goals and five assists in 30 Serie A appearances. It earned him a recall for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Norway and Moldova. Orsolini back in action for Italy BOLOGNA, ITALY – APRIL 20: Riccardo Orsolini of Bologna celebrates victory after defeating FC Internazionale 1-0 in the Serie A match between Bologna and FC Internazionale at Stadio Renato Dall'Ara on April 20, 2025 in Bologna, Italy. (Photo by) 'I am very happy and proud to be back in the Italy team after previous disappointment with the exclusion from the Euros,' Orsolini told Sky Sport Italia. 'I return to the Azzurri with my trademark enthusiasm. I will put my characteristics at the service of the team, which is unpredictability, dribbling and an eye for goal. I think I can give a lot to this Nazionale. 'When it comes to systems and tactical choices, that's down to the coach.' Advertisement Although he made his senior debut for Italy in November 2019, the 28-year-old has only seven caps, scoring two goals and providing three assists. ROME, ITALY – MAY 14: Lewis Ferguson, Lorenzo De Silvestri and Riccardo Orsolini of Bologna lift the Coppa Italia trophy as their team mates celebrate after the team's victory in the Coppa Italia Final match between AC Milan and Bologna at Stadio Olimpico on May 14, 2025 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by) Bologna won their first piece of major silverware in 51 years, sealing the Coppa Italia Final against Milan and with it qualifying for the Europa League. 'We played in the Champions League this season, the maximum club competition, and a few 'slaps' in that tournament helped us to learn and improve. Now we have more confidence.' Despite their success in the Coppa Italia, there are still reports that coach Italiano could be tempted to leave Bologna in order to take on the Milan job. 'He seems calm, he knows what he wants. I consider him to be an extraordinary coach and I hope he can continue with this project. We'll see what happens,' added Orsolini.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
🎥 Bologna celebrate Coppa Italia, chants for Italiano😍
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here. Bologna, the party is here. Yesterday afternoon in the Emilian capital, a real show in red and blue hues took place, with the team parading through the city streets on an open-top bus. Thirty thousand, this is the number of people present under the two towers to celebrate a historic milestone, which had been missing for 51 years. The architects of this year's miracle are Vincenzo Italiano and his terrible boys, who after the feat of twelve months - qualifying for the Champions League - managed to surpass themselves with the victory of the Coppa Italia. The scenes experienced yesterday afternoon were beautiful, with a unleashed Orsolini and captain De Silvestri. It all went on for a good part of the day and it doesn't matter if the end of the season took away from Bologna the possibility of qualifying again for the Champions League. A trophy is forever, it is destined to fill the trophy case and be passed down from father to son, as happened 51 years ago. A side note, regarding Italiano. The former Fiorentina coach, by choosing Bologna, may have taken the toughest road. Anyone would have had only to lose by taking over a team that seemed to have reached its peak. Italiano, however, thanks to his work and his connection with the city, has built a work of art. It's normal, then, that the entire red and blue people hope for his reconfirmation, and yesterday there were also chants in his favor. To be seen if it will be enough to ward off the interest of Milan.
New York Times
24-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Naples cranks up the noise to help Antonio Conte's Napoli over the line
Italy's greatest ever goalkeeper, Gigi Buffon, used to say: 'I've never seen a crowd score a goal.' And yet crowds — a fanbase, the people — can make themselves felt just as much as players. They can play a role in a game, a season, in the climax of a title race. This week, all of Naples wore blue. Every Neapolitan played their part. They played like No.10s. They put stickers on lamp posts, shutters, and walls. The adhesives showed Pedro as a saint. Naples is used to venerating its own, most famously D10S himself, Diego Armando Maradona. But this was new. The city instead beatified a Lazio substitute whose goals from the bench against Inter last week ensured their team remained top of the league. Advertisement Banners also portrayed Bologna winger Riccardo Orsolini as a religious icon. He too had scored a 94th-minute winner against Inter to stop the Champions League finalists from catching Napoli. The sight of Pedro and Orsolini raised a smile. They kept spirits high and served as a distraction when the doubts were creeping in and jitters about losing a title on the last day beginning to take over. 'We've been anxious all week and just wanted to play,' winger Matteo Politano said. When Antonio Conte arrived at Napoli's training ground in Castelvolturno to oversee the final preparations for Friday night's game against Cagliari, the road was lined with fans. He got out of his car and decided to run like Rocky up the steps in Philadelphia, arms outstretched, hands touching hands, the energy transferring from coach to supporters and vice versa. As was the case in 2023, when Napoli won the league after 33 long years, the magic did not come from Diego Armando Maradona. It came from Naples itself. Unlike last time when Napoli already seemed destined to win the league in February, this team needed a push to get over the line. They had taken the lead twice against Genoa a fortnight ago, and twice Napoli were pulled back. In Parma last week, the team drew again and played distracted, as if they were listening to Inter–Lazio at San Siro. Conte was surprised by the observation his team were having a hard time of it. 'How the fuck can we not suffer?' he said. His best defender, Alessandro Buongiorno, has been in and out of the team with injury in the second half of the season. Stanislav Lobotka, Napoli's best playmaker, hobbled off a couple of weeks ago and hasn't been available since. David Neres, the livewire in attack, only recently made his comeback and hasn't been up to speed. Conte wouldn't be on the sideline either on Friday, having been sent off last week. Advertisement 'If anyone has a solution,' he said, 'please raise your hand. I give up…' Give up? Conte? CONTE?! Then, he lifted his head and declared: 'But only at the end of the season.' Instead of raising their hands and offering solutions, Neapolitans revved their mopeds. Late on Thursday, the city roared. Locals found out where the Cagliari team were staying and drove a motorcade by. Some kept going round and round, honking their horns, screeching their wheels, emptying their exhaust pipes. Others pressed their heels on the kickstand, parked up, and let off enough fireworks for a month of New Year's Eves. Naples didn't sleep — so Cagliari wouldn't either. How could the team not get it done in this atmosphere? On Friday morning, the city also woke up to reports that Kevin De Bruyne might be joining. 'We like him,' Napoli's sporting director Giovanni Manna said. 'But today's not the time to talk about the transfer window. It's reductive for a team fighting for the title.' Instead of reduce anything, the rumours only enhanced the mood. Conte was, as usual, not taking anything for granted. As a player, he had lost titles on the final day in 2000. He had also won them, in 2002, at Inter's expense. Which was it to be? 'AVANTI SCUGNIZZI,' the pre-match choreography encouraged. Step up, children of Naples—the artful dodgers, the rascals and rapscallions. Go forth and conquer the fourth. Twenty minutes later, those shouts turned to silence. News filtered through of a goal on Lake Como. Stefan de Vrij had scored. Despite fielding a second-string team, Inter were in front not only at the Stadio Sinigaglia— but in Serie A too. However, as was the case in 2022, when Inter also took the title race down to the final day, once again they came up just short. As half-time approached at the Maradona, Matteo Politano lifted a cross into the box for Scott McTominay, who hit the sweetest of scissor kicks past Cagliari goalkeeper Alen Sherri. Advertisement 'I forgot about the goal because so much was going on,' McTominay told DAZN. The stadium smouldered and steamed inside and out — the flares were red like lava, red like the cornetti rossi, the good luck charms Neapolitans wear round their necks, wrists, and on their ears, red like the San Marzano tomatoes for which McTominay has such a penchant. 'For me to come and experience this,' McTominay smiled. 'It's a dream.' The first league title of his career. His opener, Romelu Lukaku's second-half clincher, and the clean sheet Napoli recorded (their 19th of the campaign) not only explained the win — they, in many respects, explained this team's season. The league's best defence belonged to Napoli. Lukaku won his second Scudetto. This time, though, he showed another side to his game — leading Serie A in assists (10), not goals. McTominay — or McFratm, McBro in Neapolitan dialect — finished the season as his team's top scorer and the league's MVP. Rom, McTom and Billy Gilmour didn't do pre-season with Conte. The coach had to wait — and wait, and wait — until the last days of summer for them to arrive. Napoli had missed out on the Champions League and the money for them was supposed to come from the sale of Victor Osimhen. But Chelsea and Al Ahli were unwilling to pay his buy-out clause. In the end, Napoli's owner Aurelio De Laurentiis authorised Manna to buy them anyway and sent Osimhen on loan to Galatasaray. De Laurentiis could not go back on his word. He'd made Conte a promise. Napoli's owner had already tried to hire Conte last season, as a replacement for Rudi Garcia. Mindful of what happened at Tottenham, however, Conte declined on the basis that he wouldn't have a transfer window to shape the team. And this Napoli team was, in his opinion, in need of a refresh. After a shock 3–0 defeat to Hellas Verona on the opening weekend of the campaign, Conte did not tread lightly. Far from it. He said Napoli 'melted like snow in the sunshine.' Advertisement As such, a prodigio is how Conte believed Napoli's title should be viewed. If not a miracle, then a genuine marvel. Listening to him at times this season, it has felt as if the club were still awaiting the first chants of Campione d'Italia since 1990. Conte liked to remind everyone Napoli finished 10th a year ago. They were 15 points adrift of qualifying for the Champions League — and a full 41 points behind eventual winners Inter. Overhauling them, it seemed, would require him to go on bended knee and pray before Saint Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples. No team had ever won the league from as far back. Until Friday night. Still there was considerable scepticism at the €150 million Napoli invested in the summer. Apart from Alessandro Buongiorno — their most expensive acquisition, and the outstanding young centre-back in Serie A last season, who was eclipsed, it must be said, by Riccardo Calafiori at the Euros — almost everyone else was at peak age or older. McTominay and David Neres were about to turn 28, while Lukaku and Leonardo Spinazzola have since celebrated their 32nd birthdays. There was little in the way of resale value. It was indicative of a win-now mentality and, creditably, win now they have done. Conte's detractors would again claim this is par for the course. Napoli were not in Europe, didn't seem to care too much about the Coppa Italia and, in contrast to treble-seeking Inter, could focus on the league all week. But only Conte seems able to consistently make a virtue of these circumstances. He also showed an adaptability that contrasts with the stereotype of him as a rigid coach. Conte changed for Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, just as he bent his principles for Andrea Pirlo at Juventus. He switched to 4-3-3 when faced with his old club in September and alternated with 3-5-2 depending on the opponent for the rest of the season. Advertisement When Kvara left for PSG in January, Conte took it as a personal defeat. Unlike with Napoli's skipper Giovanni Di Lorenzo, he had not been able to persuade him to stay long-term. As if losing his best player mid-season wasn't bad enough, Manna failed to land Alejandro Garnacho, Karim Adeyemi, and Allan Saint-Maximin as replacements. A half-fit Noah Okafor arrived on loan from Milan instead. Meanwhile, Neres — whose early super-sub displays persuaded some quarters of the media that Napoli wouldn't miss Kvara at all — unfortunately went down with an injury the minute the January window closed. Napoli understandably slowed. From February to April, they won two of eight league games and lost to Como. Much of the criticism aimed at Simone Inzaghi and Inter over this period reflected a frustration at their inability to capitalise and run away with the league. But the grind of Super Cup, Coppa Italia and Champions League took its toll, and Napoli, in the meantime, were able to hang tough. Their championship-winning points total of 82 figures as the lowest since 2011. The Neapolitans don't care. 'Ag4in' was printed on the cardboard Scudetto Giacomo Raspadori proudly carried along the running track at the Maradona. While 'Raspa' entered an exclusive club of players to win the league twice with Napoli, Conte stood alone. No one since Fabio Capello has led three different teams to the Scudetto in Serie A and in Capello's case the titles he won with Juventus were revoked in the trial that followed the Calciopoli scandal. Instead of flaming out, the fire continues to burn bright in Conte. The only thing cool about him are those glacial blue eyes, eyes the colour of the water in the twinkling grottos of his native Puglia, eyes tinged with same azure as Napoli's jerseys. Few people, still to this day, are more Juventus than Conte and yet his reputation for being the closest thing to a guarantee of glory has made even their fiercest rivals accept him, no questions asked. The one question now being put to him is whether he'll stay. De Laurentiis hopes so but risks losing him, just as he lost Luciano Spalletti. Conte wouldn't be drawn on the matter. He wanted to focus on the present, rather than the future. 'It's happened again,' Conte said of the title. 'It's fantastic, bellissimo. Honestly it was difficult to get to the stadium today. I don't know how many people were out there on the streets. A little part of me said if we disappoint them, we'll carry that with us for a long time, me in particular.' Instead Napoli will carry on partying well into the night, tomorrow and next week. 'We need to enjoy it with our people now,' McTominay said, sprinkling in a couple of words in Italian like basil leaves on a margherita. 'What great champions do is they come back next year and it's the same energy and with Mister Conte the energy is always… TROPPO ALTO! Always TROPPO ALTO! (Too high. Too high). So for us we need to replicate that and come back next year with the same mentality.' Top photo: Carlo Hermann/AFP via Getty Images
CNA
14-05-2025
- Sport
- CNA
Ndoye fires Bologna to Coppa Italia glory
ROME : Dan Ndoye's second-half strike earned Bologna a hard-fought 1–0 victory over AC Milan in the Coppa Italia final on Wednesday to secure their first major trophy in 51 years. After a fast-paced start to the first half, where both sides carved out dangerous chances, the teams went into the break goalless after some sharp saves at either end. Eight minutes into the second half, Bologna got the breakthrough when Milan defender Theo Hernandez's well-timed tackle on Riccardo Orsolini sent the ball rolling to an unmarked Ndoye, who calmly slotted it home from close range. Milan struggled to create any urgency, despite trailing and could not find an equaliser, handing Bologna their first major trophy since they won the same competition in 1974.
