Spalletti’s big goal will be to qualify the European champions for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, after Italy missed the 2018 and 2022 editions.
The FIGC said in a statement that it “reached an agreement with Luciano Spalletti for the position of coach of the Italian national team as of September 1. “
“Let’s welcome Spalletti,” said FIGC President Gabriele Gravina, “the national team is a wonderful coach and I am very pleased that he has accepted the Azzurri’s technical recommendation. “
The duration of his contract is already specified, but according to the Italian press, it would be extended for three years until 2026.
The FIGC said Spalletti would be officially unveiled at the national education centre in Coverciano, near Florence, ahead of Euro 2024 qualifiers facing North Macedonia and Ukraine in early September.
Spalletti had been unemployed since leaving Napoli, weeks after leading them to the third Scudetto in their history.
Negotiations had been confusing because his contract with Napoli, which runs until June 2024, included a clause requiring him to pay a 3 million euro ($3. 3 million) refund if he accepted a new position.
Napoli president and owner Aurelio De Laurentiis had denied the Tuscan coach that obligation.
The FIGC said if an agreement had been reached with Napoli.
But before thinking about the World Cup and healing the traumas of a nation, the new coach of the Azzurri will have to put his team, reigning European champions, back on track for Euro 2024 in Germany.
Italy sit third in Group C with three points after a 2-0 win over Malta and a 2-1 loss to England, who lead with 12 points from four matches.
“His enthusiasm and experience will be up to the demanding situations that await Italy in the coming months,” said Gravina.
Spalletti has only a few days to prepare for a confusing trip to Skopje, where he will face North Macedonia, who blocked Italy’s path to the World Cup in Qatar, on September 9, and then host Ukraine in Milan, 3 days later.
Like his predecessor, Spalletti will have a primary to resolve, with a limited group of attackers.
Italy’s most sensible scorers in Serie A last season, Sassuolo’s Domenico Berardi and Lazio’s Ciro Immobile, scored 12 goals.
This offensive fragility did not save Mancini from winning the European title, 53 years after Italy’s first continental trophy, and from going 37 games without losing between September 2018 and October 2021, a record for a national team.
Spalletti has a temperament and a taste that the national team and the references necessary to convince his players after a surprising season with Napoli.
At 64, he is the oldest coach to win the Italian name last season, but his dynamism and the modern, relaxed way of playing his groups are not up to his years of advancement.
After a modest career as a midfielder in the Italian 3rd division, Spalletti established himself as a coach at small clubs before managing AS Roma, Inter and Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Mancini, 58, who resigned after five years because the club made “a decision”, is shaping up to take over as Saudi Arabia’s coach.