Andrea Pirlo is out of the running to coach the Italian national team. And it wasn’t his record that killed it. It was a sponsorship deal with a Russian betting company.
Pirlo confirmed the news Monday on Instagram, saying he learned the night before that he was no longer the candidate for the job. The former AC Milan and Juventus midfielder had been in talks to replace Gennaro Gattuso, who left after Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third straight time.
The problem? Pirlo is an ambassador for Fonbet, a Russian betting firm. Several Italian politicians raised objections, arguing that the national team coach should not be associated with a Russian company while Italy backs Ukraine in the war. Pirlo called the arrangement “exclusively for commercial and sports” purposes and said it was tied to his coaching job with Dubai United.
“Attributing a political significance to that collaboration means attributing beliefs to me that I have never expressed and don’t belong to me,” he wrote.
It didn’t matter. The political heat was too much.
Not exactly the popular pick anyway
Let’s be real here: Pirlo wasn’t exactly the fans’ choice to begin with. His previous coaching stints at Juventus and Sampdoria went poorly. He never really had the full backing of the federation or the public. He only became the frontrunner after Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola both turned down the job. So when the Fonbet issue came up, there wasn’t a lot of support to push him through.
Now the search is back on. And the names being floated are familiar ones.
Conte and Mancini back in the mix
Antonio Conte and Roberto Mancini are reportedly under consideration again. Both men have held the job before. Conte coached Italy from 2014 to 2016, going 14-6-5 and taking the team to the Euro 2016 quarterfinals where they lost to Germany on penalties. Mancini took over in 2018 and led Italy to the Euro 2020 title, beating England at Wembley in a penalty shootout. But the next year, Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup after a shock playoff loss to North Macedonia.
So neither guy is without baggage. But both are proven at this level, and both are available. Italy has been without a permanent coach since April, when Gattuso left by mutual consent after that brutal qualifying loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Whoever takes over will have a tough job. The national team has missed two straight World Cups. That’s a stain that doesn’t wash out quickly. And the federation can’t afford another blown hire.
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