A day of meetings, phone calls, reflections and attempts at reconciliation. And then the final twist: the door slammed by Paolo Maldini and Leonardo, who are leaving their role at the FIGC as 'rebuilders' of Italian football. It had begun with Andrea Pirlo's 'withdrawal', continued with rumours of the departure of the two former AC Milan men at the helm of Club Italia, then pivoted towards a potential compromise – Thiago Motta as national team manager – and finally came the epilogue: the resignation of the two executives, announced via a phone call made to Malagò, perhaps deliberately, while a meeting with FIGC stakeholders was underway on the eve of the federal council. Now, as in a game of snakes and ladders, it is back to square one.
The hypothesis under consideration is Chiellini as technical director, while for the manager's role the names of Roberto Mancini, the frontrunner – though Serie A league sources reiterate to ANSA that the clubs are not keen on the name – and Antonio Conte are back in the frame. And time is running out. "There will be news tomorrow" was the last appointment given by Giovanni Malagò, before the shock resignation. The FIGC president spent the day between a visit to the amateur football board, contacts aimed at completing the Italian football puzzle, a meeting with the football leagues and unions, and an exchange of words with Minister Abodi.
"I learned yesterday evening that I am no longer a candidate for the national team bench," Pirlo announced on social media, making no secret of his "bitterness" at having been dragged into a political controversy, with attacks originating from rivals or people close to his rivals. "I do not know whether the issue of the Russian sponsor was behind the rejection," Abodi commented, "but the damage to Italy's reputation must now be addressed." "It depends on who caused it," came Malagò's reply, quick to point out that politics offers plenty of examples of the same. "He took the blow," Abodi countered. Entirely under the radar, however, remained the central dispute: the rejection of Pirlo and the 'shelving' of the Maldini project.
From the morning, Malagò tried to shake up the situation in an attempt to keep the pair of executives who had been called upon to build a technical project. Between the FIGC offices – where the Miele complaint concerning the alleged failure to register Malagò before the elections was said to have landed on the desk of federal prosecutor Giuseppe Chinè – and those of the Amateur League, amid phone calls and personal meetings, it was an intense day's work. It was clear to Malagò that an alternative name was needed, beyond the most favoured candidates, Mancini or Conte.
"I am working on it, news soon," were the FIGC president's first words, as he was engaged in two long-scheduled meetings: the LND board and the meeting with the stakeholders ahead of tomorrow's federal council. This was how the candidacy of Thiago Motta emerged – formerly a midfielder with Mourinho's Inter and the national team, and as a coach brought in to manage PSG's youth teams by Leonardo himself during his first year as a Parisian executive. The dream, very much Italo-Brazilian in spirit, was to replicate the fine experience of Bologna. But not even this name won over Maldini. And so the decision to step down arrived while the FIGC meeting was still in progress, leaving several of those present stunned.
"We learned from the media, as we were leaving Malagò's office," said Giancarlo Abete, head of the amateur football federation and defeated rival of the president in the June elections. "We are not used to these kinds of situations. Now we need to start again from a serious project: we are back to square one. It will be up to Malagò to say whether he proceeds as he had stated, first a new technical director and then the coach, or whether he goes ahead directly with the choice of the manager. He did not mention any names to us." The president left Via Allegri without making any statements, facing a long night of work and contacts to sort out the final pieces ahead of tomorrow's Board meeting.
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