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Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe

You may have heard of a mess going on around Italy’s men’s National soccer team. Well, let’s try to unpack it, bc it’s very easy to see it as a matter of “respected soccer figures’ desire to bring in Change slowed down by internal politicking” and that’s not totally what happened

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2 прямых ответов · 11 сообщений

Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe

First thing: in June, Giovanni Malagò was elected head of the soccer federation. But who is Malagò? He’s an entrepreneur, former Futsal World Cup player and more importantly for the last 12 years he’s been the head of Italy’s Olympic committee+head of the host committee for the 2026 Winter Olympics

Ответ для Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe
Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe

His appointment was the result of long months of political manoeuvring between the multiple parties that elect the president of the federation: pro leagues, amateur, players, refs. Bc of his Olympic experience, Malagò was seen as key for securing the organising of Euro 2032 w/ Turkey

Ответ для Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe
Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe

(Incidentally, some reports are saying that Malagò has taken the responsibility of organising Euro 2032 with an eye towards enhancing his reputation in order to be at the head of his lifelong dream of hosting the Summer Olympics, in 2040, in his hometown, Rome)

Ответ для Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe
Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe

Malagò’s first job was hiring the new head coach of the men’s soccer team. The Serie A teams have been asking (idk why they have a say in this but welcome to Italy) for Antonio Conte, while it was long rumoured that Malagò’s preference would be for his friend Roberto Mancini

Ответ для Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe
Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe

But Malagò took another path: he hired a technical director, a role the federation had never used for its national team setup, who would then hire the head coach and organise the national and youth teams with a long term project. He hired Paolo Maldini with Leonardo as his advisor

Ответ для Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe
Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe

Now a weird thing: the first reports after these hires said that Leonardo and Maldini wanted to hire Andrea Pirlo. These reports received an enormous backlash, with Pirlo simply not deemed good enough. After that, for two days apparently the head duo pushed hard for Guardiola, even flying to Spain

Ответ для Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe
Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe

Once Guardiola said no, for a second the idea of bringing in Ancelotti was floated, but with him locked under a long contract by Brazil, the idea was quickly abandoned… and we were directly back to Pirlo. No other names, no search, straight from Guardiola to a guy coaching in the Emirati 2nd tier

Ответ для Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe
Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe

This was weird and, if you asked me, signalled one simple thing: Maldini and Leonardo had wanted to hire Pirlo as their only option from the beginning, and made an impossible attempt at two big names just to convince people they had done “a search”. But this is my view, not corroborated by proof

Ответ для Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe
Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe

Anyway, so here it is: Pirlo will coach the national team. There is just one little problem, initially floated by a small, liberal publication but which then gained steam in the public: through the owner of his Emirati club, Pirlo is the testimonial for a Russian betting company called Fonbet

Ответ для Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe
Alessandro Acquistapace-Volpe

But Fonbet isn’t just any Russian company, nor Pirlo any testimonial. Fonbet organises Paralympic sporting events dedicate to supporting soldiers injured during the invasion of Ukraine, including a sitting volleyball tournament featuring a team from the “People’s Republic of Donetsk”

Prairie Rose Clayton

I had heard but did not know the details, thank you