JAKARTA - Napoli coach Antonio Conte expressed his willingness to return to manage the Italian national team. He is also ready to leave Napoli if asked to coach Gli Azzurri.
Conte is one of the candidates who is said to be returning to the national team. The coach who last season led Napoli to the Scudetto has indeed been the architect of Italy for two years, 2014 to 2016. Conte, who replaced Cesare Prandelli at the time, successfully led Italy to qualify for the 2016 European Cup.
However, Italy failed to become champions. Their steps were stopped by Germany through a penalty shootout in the quarter-finals.
After being eliminated in the European Cup, Conte immediately resigned. The reason is that the Italian football federation (FIGC) has announced that Conte will resign as coach of the national team after the European Cup.
Now, Conte is back in the market with Roberto Mancini who also managed the national team. Italy needs a new coach after the resignation of Gennaro Gattuso following the failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup finals.
In the playoff final, Italy had to admit defeat to the underestimated team, Bosnia-Herzegovina through a penalty shootout. This is the third time in a row that Italy has failed to qualify for the World Cup.
"If I become president of the federation, I will definitely appoint myself as the national team coach," Conte said.
"I have managed the national team. So I know what to do," he said.
Previously, Mancini also showed confidence in handling Italy for the second time. Mancini coached the national team from 2018 to 2023. He successfully led Italy to become champions at Euro 2020 by defeating England.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
