Not just Acerbi, from Belinelli to Destro: those 'rebel' Azzurri

The great refusal. Francesco Acerbi's no to a call-up to the national team already defined dismantles with a simple text message - the one sent by the Inter defender yesterday morning to coach Luciano Spalletti - years and years of invocations to the sacredness of the blue shirt. Not that those noes thrown in the face of Italian football had been non-existent in the past. But to get around the risk of disqualification, people appealed to a little pain, evoked a past injury that was about to reappear, cited undefined muscular fatigue.

Many names 'talked about', with lots of arguments with their respective clubs, few certainties about reality. So in the annals, apart from Zaniolo's refusal to a call-up with Mourinho's Roma that led to the definitive break or the legend of a Cassano tied up by his Azzurri teammates in the Euro 2024 retreat to prevent him from returning to Italy after his first bench, the only football precedent is that of Mattia Destro : included in the Azzurri group for the 2014 World Cup by Prandelli, he said no to the idea of ​​appearing only as a reserve for Giuseppe Rossi and preferred to stay at home.

A no to the Azzurri, according to the French media, also came in 2023 from Marco Verratti , a key figure in the national team that won the European championship under Mancini, who then left the circuit, ended up in Arabia and was recalled - in vain - by Spalletti. But the Azzurri's rebels are also in other sports.

The latest, sensational case is that of the four Italian women's volleyball players who won Olympic gold at Paris 2024, Elena Pietrini, Cristina Chirichella, Sara Bonifacio and Marina Lubian (the only one present at the Paris Games), who chose not to respond to the call for the Nations League. Velasco expressed a rather clear disappointment: "For me the door is almost closed. A no is always a no and the National team is special, it is not a club", the words of the Italian coach.

Before them, a controversial no had been that of Paola Egonu : at odds with coach Mazzanti after the European Championship, she took a break, interrupted by the arrival of Velasco in the national team.

Marco Belinelli 's refusal to participate in the pre-Olympic tournament of the national basketball team, the last chance to qualify for the Games, caused a stir just before the Tokyo Games: his motivation was the fatigue of the season.

Just like Jannik Sinner 's absence from the 2023 Davis Cup: the future world number 1 had come out exhausted from the match with Zverev at the US Open, his withdrawal opened a book of complaints, silenced only by his subsequent presence with a victory.