Malagò Confirms He Wanted Mancini All Along and Reveals How Italy's Coach Search Fell Apart
FIGC Commissioner Giovanni Malagò has opened up on the chaotic summer that ended with Roberto Mancini returning as Italy coach, confirming he had wanted the former Manchester City manager from the very beginning of a search that lurched from Pep Guardiola to Andrea Pirlo and ultimately cost Paolo Maldini and Leonardo their jobs after just 16 days.
Speaking to La Repubblica, with his quotes carried by La Gazzetta dello Sport, Malagò described a process in which he deliberately stepped back from the football decision-making — only to watch the project he had handed to Maldini and Leonardo unravelled in a matter of weeks.
'There's no doubt I wanted Roberto from the start'
Malagò made no attempt to hide where his own preference had always lain, and insisted his hands-off approach was a deliberate choice about how the federation should be run.
“There's no doubt I wanted Roberto from the start, and I'll confirm that here too,” he said.
“I think I understand football, but the signal I wanted to send was to leave responsibility for the national team to others and focus on organisation, resources, sponsors, diplomatic channels and institutional matters.”
An evening with Guardiola — and an honest answer
Malagò chose Maldini to lead the project, hoping the former Milan captain would eventually reach the same conclusion on the coach, and agreed to let Leonardo share the role. The pair then spent an evening in Guardiola's company as they explored the most ambitious option available to them.
“I never spoke to Guardiola myself, but Maldini and Leonardo were with him all evening,” Malagò explained.
“Pep was honest. He's taken a sabbatical, partly for family reasons, but if he had done something, he would have done it with us.”
Pirlo move collapses over ambassadorial deal
With Guardiola out of reach, Maldini turned to a member of Italy's 2006 World Cup-winning generation in Pirlo — an appointment that ran aground when the midfielder's role as an ambassador for a Russian betting company came to light.
“Neither he nor I knew about Pirlo's contract. At that point I said: 'Let's stop here.' Was I devastated? Not at all,” Malagò said.
Maldini and Leonardo gone after 16 days
The fallout was swift: Maldini and Leonardo resigned after just 16 days in charge of the Italy setup, leaving Malagò to bring the saga to a close and return to Mancini.
“Up to then I had been loyal to Maldini, even though I hoped he'd come round to my choice. At a certain point you can only say thank you and goodbye. I'm a fatalist.”
The two men have barely spoken since. “I spoke to Maldini a few days after we split, but not since,” Malagò added. “I'll go and see him in Milan after the vote, if he wants.”
Mancini's return and what comes next
The upshot of the summer's twists is a national team once again led by Mancini, the coach Malagò says he had identified before the search even began, and a federation leadership that will have to rebuild relationships after a bruising few weeks. Malagò's suggestion that he will travel to Milan to see Maldini once the vote is concluded underlines how raw the split remains.