Mancini remains and aims for USA 2026 “I am young and I look forward”

No technical revolution in sight and the FIGC must not look for an alternative The coach: “The European title has arrived, I’ll have to wait a little longer for the World Cup”

Torino

The time for reflections in Roberto Mancini’s mind did not last long. Or, rather, he has always had a very specific dimension: lost a World Cup, another can be done. Thus, outside the trip to Qatar there is no room for any kind of technical revolution, but for a renewed relationship of trust between the national team and those who led it to retouch the top of Europe after more than fifty years from the first. time.

Mancini has a contract, renewed last June, until 2026 and, in the summer of 2026, the World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada is on the agenda. “I am young and, above all, I am convinced that I can still have fun with the Azzurri …” says the coach of the knockout with Macedonia who deflated us at the door of the biggest event as happened in November 2017.

Redoing a World Cup, for Mancini, would mean making the first protagonist because, as a player, Mancio has never set foot in planetary football: he did not do it in 1986 – he remained out of Bearzot’s list -, he did not succeed. in ’90 – called up, he always remained on the bench – and did not want it in ’94 when he came out on his own, announcing to Sacchi that he could experience the adventure in America as deputy Baggio, but not as deputy Zola and whoever had in the lead the Arigo Nazionale. Trying to do a World Championship again was one of the springs that pushed Mancini on the accelerator of the stay and trying to do it again with the magic of a group, inevitably to be enlarged, but not to overturn, has closed the circle.

«What motivations did I give myself for our journey after the victory at the European Championships? And what motivations do I have to give myself: in Switzerland, in the group, we deserved to win 3-0 and with Switzerland at the Olimpico on points without any problems. And in the account I don’t put Bulgaria in Florence or anything else … it had to go like this », he says.

Walking through the corridors of Coverciano, in May 2018, but also afterwards, he often heard himself say: “Mancini sees the 2020 European Championships as a step of growth to win in Qatar two years later …”. The Europeans, due to Covid, have been postponed by a year and Italy won them not by chance, Qatar is no more, but the head of the World Cup remains: Mancini will work for that. «When I signed, I set myself two victories: the European title and the world title. The first has arrived, for the second I will have to wait a bit », said the Italian coach.

Mancini remains, the FIGC smiles: looking for an alternative in case of farewell would have been a small, great ordeal. Lippi-Cannavaro, Ranieri, Pirlo, Ancelotti, names on the pitch, but names, for one reason or another, little credited: the only one to consider, in the eventuality, more credible would have been De Zerbi with Gasperini in the background.

“We are aligned with the FIGC, after Turkey we will talk to President Gravina”, says the coach who is heading towards the American dream in 2026. –