Who will rescue the Italian team?
Immediately after the 0-3 defeat of the Italian team against the Norwegian team, coach Luciano Spalletti decided to resign.
Despite having to play as a guest against the Norwegian team with Martin Odegaard, Erling Haaland or Alexander Sorloth, the Italian team nicknamed Azzurri is still rated higher in terms of chances of winning. Unfortunately, after only 42 minutes of play, goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma had to pick the ball out of the net 3 times.
The defeat left Italy behind in a group that also includes Norway, Israel, Estonia and Moldova. The EURO 2020 champions have yet to pick up a point in Group I of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Europe.
As the "leader", coach Luciano Spalletti had to take responsibility for the team's poor performance. To correct the mistake, the strategist born in 1959 decided to leave the position of captain of the Italian team earlier than expected.
Thus, in the match to welcome the Moldova team on June 10, Italy will be without a head coach. Fortunately for Gianluigi Donnarumma and his teammates, the Moldova team is quite weak. Therefore, not having a head coach is not too serious a problem.
However, to participate in the 2026 World Cup, the Italian team must find an excellent captain. Unfortunately, at this time, most of the talented strategists have stable jobs or do not want to "reappear in the world", a typical example is the case of coach Zinedine Zidane.
According to information from the "spaghetti country" media, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) is contacting coach Claudio Ranieri, who just helped AS Roma finish 5th in Serie A 2024/2025. It is worth mentioning that after nearly 40 years of working as a coach, the "welder" has never led the Italian National Team.
If FIGC is serious, it is very likely that coach Claudio Ranieri will accept. The class of the strategist born in 1951 is something that needs no further discussion. It should be noted that the Italian team had to miss the 2018 World Cup and the 2022 World Cup./.
