Italy's national team: A strange event ends the Spalletti experiment

Luciano Spalletti maintained his calm, sonorous voice even when announcing his dismissal. The Italian national coach had taken his seat at the usual press conference the day before the World Cup qualifier against Moldova and immediately took the floor. This is not unusual for Spalletti; he is a brilliant, often expansive speaker, and he has addressed the nation many times during the crises of his tenure. On Sunday, however, he did so for the last time in this position.

He had been informed the previous evening by the president of the Italian Football Federation that he would no longer be coach of the national team. "This is a dismissal," Spalletti clarified, and he accepted it as such; he would not have left of his own accord: "I would have preferred to stay in my position and continue my work as I have always done throughout my career," emphasized the 66-year-old. On Monday evening, he will coach the match against Moldova before saying goodbye to the job that meant so much to him: "I'm sorry," said Spalletti: "I love this shirt and these players."

The decision comes in a penalty shootout: Portugal wins the Nations League for the second time because Spain's Álvaro Morata is the only shooter to miss. Cristiano Ronaldo is forced off injured, suffering and celebrating.

It was dignified, as dignified as possible when a coach announces his own dismissal. The association's approach remains peculiar. The bizarre circumstances of the separation merely testified to the greatness of Spalletti, who at times lacked energy but never lacked words. He demonstrated this again in that memorable press conference, in which he once again called on the country to rediscover faith in the national team before leaving the room with a quiet sigh and tears in his eyes. That, however, did not change the cause of the drama – nor the justification for the dismissal, which the domestic media had already called for in the days before, even if they now gave Spalletti a fair round of applause on his departure. Because the fact is: the Italian team Spalletti leaves behind is a pile of rubble.

A 3-0 defeat to Norway in Oslo on Friday evening was the low point of the coach's ill-fated tenure. The Italians appeared exhausted and discouraged against the team led by striker Erling Haaland, who now clearly lead qualifying Group I with nine points after three matchdays. Italy had no chance in their most important away match for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, and chaos and panic reigned on the pitch against an outstanding opponent. And panic now reigns throughout Italy.

Although the squadra played only its first match of this qualification round in Oslo, there is already a fairly realistic scenario in which the Italians would still not be able to secure first place, even with optimal points tally. And because the group runner-up has to enter complicated playoffs, the whole situation is overshadowed by a more dramatic scenario: The great football nation of Italy is in danger of failing to qualify for a World Cup for the third time in a row.

Like a dark storm cloud, this fear hovers over a country that has long since surrendered to azure mistrust. People feel alienated from their Squadra Azzurra like perhaps never before in Italy's long, proud football history. As a rough guide to the height of the fall: Anyone who remembers the great distance between the German national team and its fans after their disappointing performances at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups should imagine if Germany (like Italy) hadn't even qualified for those tournaments.

Many people played a role in this estrangement, but above all two coaches. First and foremost, Roberto Mancini, who was often praised for his achievements in leading a brilliant Italy to European Championship in 2021. But that title must now be viewed more as a slip-up. Mancini was also responsible for missing out on a World Cup and a lack of development. Furthermore, his abrupt departure for the salary paradise of Saudi Arabia fueled doubts about the character of coaches. The Tifosi had previously remained loyal to him despite sporting disappointments in the months following the European Championship title – Mancini thanked them by following the lure of money in August 2023.

He ceded the field to the sonorous orator Spalletti, a longtime club coach who was then the reigning champion coach with Napoli. It was actually an experiment because Spalletti simply refused to accept a simpler approach to football as national coach, the way Julian Nagelsmann, for example, had managed to do after initial difficulties in Germany. Spalletti's style of football seemed too complex, unimplementable, and immature, and he himself came across as so aloof that he failed to win the hearts of the fans even on the few good days of his career.

This team and its coach never found common ground, losing themselves in debates about back threes and back fours, from which Spalletti was usually only able to escape thanks to his talent for lengthy explanations. A line could have been drawn under this tenure last year, after the European Championship in Germany, which had started well but ultimately proved disastrous. Instead, it was a slow, gradual decline that now ends inglorious – with the tears of a coach who left the stage on Sunday with his head hanging low, ashamed and self-critical. Partly because of this dignified end, he will probably one day be forgiven for his sporting failure in Italy. Spalletti's parting gift is the waiver of severance pay. From Tuesday, he said, he will no longer earn anything, saying that being national coach was "a service to my country" for him.

The association will now search for a new savior; they need a miracle worker who can secure World Cup participation in the short term and, beyond that, mend the relationship between the country and the team. The Gazzetta dello Sport has already reported that a veteran is ready for this major task: Claudio Ranieri, 73, may have announced his retirement twice in the recent past, but he's considered someone who never says never. A coach who won the English championship with underdog Leicester City in 2016 and most recently revived the Rome base as coach of AS Roma would certainly be capable of performing a miracle.