Roberto Mancini reappointed as Italy coach after Pirlo’s Russian betting ties torpedoed the plan

Italy’s football federation just pulled off the managerial equivalent of calling your ex. Roberto Mancini, the man who led the Azzurri to their Euro 2020 triumph and then walked away, has been reappointed as head coach of the Italian national team. The announcement, made on July 28, 2026, by FIGC president Giovanni Malago, comes after what can only be described as one of the messiest coaching searches in recent international football history. The original plan was to hand the job to Andrea Pirlo. That plan lasted right up until Pirlo’s commercial ties to Fonbet, a Russian betting company, became public knowledge. In a geopolitical climate still shaped by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, that association was, to put it mildly, a dealbreaker. The backlash was swift and loud enough to make the FIGC abandon the Pirlo appointment entirely. A World Cup-winning midfielder, widely regarded as one of the most elegant players to ever grace Italian football, was effectively disqualified from the national team job because of a betting sponsorship deal. The FIGC’s coaching search reportedly included conversations with Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti before the federation settled on bringing Manci...