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Roberto Mancini Will Lead Italy

Roberto Mancini Will Lead Italy
Roberto Mancini Will Lead Italy

The whirling ball of managing wrecked Italy national team finally found peace in the hands of Roberto Mancini on May 14.

Former Inter Milan and Manchester City coach, Roberto Mancini was given the daunting task of rebuilding Italy’s national side on Monday following their astonishing failure to qualify for the World Cup, Reuters reported.

Mancini, as had been widely predicted, was named as the new national team coach to replace the hapless Gian Piero Ventura, sacked in November after Italy missed out on the World Cup for the first time since 1958.

The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) said it had “concluded an agreement with Roberto Mancini who will hold the position of coach of the national team.”

Four-times world champions Italy are at an all time low of 20th in the FIFA rankings after losing to 1-0 on aggregate to Sweden in a playoff for a place in Russia.

They were eliminated in the group stage at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, although they have done better at the European Championship, reaching the final in 2012 and the quarter-finals in 2016.

The rebuilding task gets more challenging when Italy goal keeper Gianluigi Buffon retirement begins to loom.

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon will hold a press conference on Thursday morning, during which he is expected to announce his retirement, the Serie A champions announced.

The 40-year-old Italian international has said he intends to hang up his gloves at the end of the season, but as yet has not made an official announcement.

Mancini began his coaching career with Fiorentina in 2001 and won the Coppa Italia in his first season even though the club was plagued by financial problems.

He then moved to Lazio but had his biggest success at Inter Milan where he won three successive Serie A titles.

That was followed by a stint at big-spending Manchester City where he won one English Premier League and one FA Cup title in four seasons.

Since then, he has coached at Galatasaray, had another less successful spell at Inter and finally a season at Zenit.

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