Italy Have Their Manager. They've Also Just Lost Their Technical Director.
Roberto Mancini is back as Italy manager. The FIGC got what they wanted. But Paolo Maldini resigned the moment it happened, and that detail tells you everything about how this appointment was handled.
This is not a clean return. This is a messy one.
The Pirlo Situation Was Already a Mess
Andrea Pirlo ruling himself out — a day before Mancini's reappointment was confirmed — is not a minor footnote. That timing is loud. Pirlo didn't slowly drift away from the process. He made a public decision and then, almost immediately, the FIGC moved on and handed the job back to Mancini anyway.
The question that has to be asked: was Pirlo ever seriously in the running, or was this always heading back to Mancini? Because if the federation was always going to go back to the former Manchester City boss, stringing Pirlo along publicly — even briefly — was a disservice to one of Italian football's most respected figures.
Pirlo didn't need that. And Italy didn't need the spectacle of it.
Maldini Walking Is the Real Story
Mancini returning is newsworthy. Maldini resigning over it is the actual story.
Paolo Maldini does not quit jobs lightly. His record in football — both as a player and in technical roles — is built on loyalty and professionalism. When a man like that walks out the door, it means he saw something he couldn't accept. Whether that was the process, the decision itself, or who was pushing for it, we don't know. But his exit signals a serious internal fracture at the FIGC.
Technical directors and managers need to work together. They need trust. If Maldini — the man who was supposed to shape Italy's footballing identity from the top — couldn't back this appointment, that is a problem that does not disappear just because Mancini has signed on the dotted line.
What Mancini Brings Back
Let's not pretend the man hasn't earned his reputation. Mancini's first spell with Italy ended in circumstances that left a sour taste, but his record before that departure was real. He won the European Championship with the Azzurri. He transformed a side that had failed to qualify for a World Cup into continental champions.
That matters. The FIGC clearly believe the original project still has legs, and that Mancini is the man to pick it up again.
The football knowledge is not in question. The tactics, the organisation, the ability to build a team identity — he has demonstrated all of it at international level. Italy under Mancini played with structure and belief. That is not nothing.
But the Foundation Is Already Cracked
Here is the problem. You can have the right manager and still have the wrong environment around him. Mancini needs a functional structure above him. He needs a technical director he can work with and who has the confidence of the federation. Right now, that position is vacant. It was vacated in protest.
Whoever steps into Maldini's role — if anyone does quickly — will be starting from scratch in terms of relationships and trust. That affects everything. Recruitment. Development. Long-term planning. You cannot run a national football programme properly with a hole in the roof.
Italy have a track record of footballing chaos at federation level, and this appointment — however justifiable on pure football grounds — has added to it rather than stabilised anything.
Our Verdict
Mancini back at Italy is not an unreasonable decision in isolation. He won a major tournament with this country. The logic of returning to something that worked is not absurd.
But the FIGC have bought themselves one manager and lost their technical director in the same breath. That is not a good deal. Pirlo was apparently a live candidate until he wasn't, and Maldini — one of the most credible football people Italy has — found this outcome unacceptable.
Mancini gets another shot. Fair enough. But the house he's walking back into is already unsettled, and that is entirely on the people who run Italian football.
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Image via [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Mancini) / Wikimedia Commons