Mancini and Ranieri handed Italy’s emergency rebuild

Roberto Mancini has agreed to return as Italy head coach, five years after leading the national team to European Championship success and three years after leaving the role.Claudio Ranieri has been appointed technical director and will oversee elite football development across Italy’s national-team structure, replacing Paolo Maldini after his abrupt resignation.FIGC president Giovanni Malagò said: “Mancini is the coach. I believed that the best person to become head coach was Roberto Mancini.”Mancini replaces Gennaro Gattuso, who left by mutual consent in April after Italy failed to qualify for a third consecutive FIFA World Cup.The appointment ends a turbulent recruitment process in which the FIGC failed to secure Pep Guardiola before political opposition derailed a proposed move for Andrea Pirlo.Guardiola was the federation’s preferred candidate, but talks did not produce an agreement after the FIGC rejected the salary required to attract the former Manchester City manager.Pirlo then emerged as Maldini’s preferred option and was prepared to leave Dubai United, but controversy over his ambassadorial relationship with Russian betting company Fonbet made the appointment politically difficult.Maldini and his adviser Leonardo resigned after Pirlo dropped out of contention, leaving Malagò to rebuild both the coaching and technical leadership structures.Malagò said: “I needed someone with whom I could share the decision on the coach, because without that shared view my reasoning would have carried little weight.“So consequently, we have a new coach and a new technical director for Italy.”Ranieri brings extensive experience from club football, including Leicester City’s Premier League title in 2016, and will now be responsible for linking the senior team with Italy’s wider development system.Mancini previously managed Italy from 2018 until 2023, winning 37 of his 58 matches and overseeing the team’s Euro 2020 triumph against England at Wembley.His first spell also included failure to qualify for the 2022 World Cup and a slow start to Euro 2024 qualifying before he resigned to take charge of Saudi Arabia.The FIGC are betting that familiarity and experience can stabilise a national programme damaged by repeated qualification failures and executive upheaval.Mancini’s immediate task will be restoring competitive credibility, while Ranieri must address the longer-term coaching and player-development weaknesses exposed by Italy’s extended absence from the World Cup.