Mancini embraces multi-ethnic Italy, Capello laments lost defensive grit
A transformed Italy side left the Stade de France with a 1–1 draw against France, and with it a broader conversation about what the national team will look like in the years ahead. Roberto Mancini, back on the Azzurri bench since July 2026, used the occasion to confront questions from French journalists about his policy of calling up players with dual nationality — and to make clear he sees it as an inevitable and positive shift. The match itself produced a personal redemption for Alessandro Bastoni, whose goal cancelled out the hosts' opener and answered his recent critics.
"The world has changed" — Mancini on dual nationals
Pressed repeatedly by French reporters on whether he was following the path France set in 1998 with its multicultural squad, Mancini was direct. Italy's head coach told reporters at Saint-Denis that the shift was neither surprising nor controversial.
"I've had many experiences abroad, it changes nothing for me, I find it all very normal," Mancini said. "France got there much earlier, but then it will be like that for us too."
He framed the move toward players with dual passports as both overdue and advantageous. "The world changed a long time ago — now it's Italy's turn," he said. "We have the possibility to have players who can give us much more than what we've had in the past."
Alessandro Bastoni, the defender whose goal secured the draw, echoed his coach's pragmatism. Club football had already made this adaptation, he noted. "We're already used to it in our clubs with so many foreigners," Bastoni said. "Sure, sometimes you have to adapt to their rhythms and their habits, but you do it willingly. Confronting those with different habits improves us."
The backing from the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) has been consistent. FIGC president Gabriele Gravina has said the final decision on dual-nationality call-ups rests with the head coach, expressing confidence in Mancini's judgment. CONI president Giovanni Malagò has also welcomed the trend of eligible players choosing Italy.
Who is in Mancini's expanded pool?
The September 2026 Nations League squad reflected this policy in action. Mancini included several new faces with dual eligibility, among them Alessandro Romano — a midfielder called up by Italy after appearing for Swiss youth teams — alongside Issa Doumbia, Eddy Kouadio, Mohamed Ali Zoma, and Samuele Inacio.
Others on Mancini's radar include Nicolò Tresoldi, a forward born in Italy but raised in Germany, and several Argentina-based players with Italian passports such as Matías Soulé and Santiago Castro. The FIFA rule changes of September 2020 made switches easier for players with only minor appearances for other federations.
But the policy runs into a structural limit: young players born and raised in Italy to foreign parents often cannot obtain citizenship before age 18 under current Italian law, blocking them from representing Italian youth national teams even as they come through Italian academies. Malagò has acknowledged the citizenship system as a competitive handicap.
The Serie A context sharpens the debate. Only 28.2% of players used in the first five matches of the 2026/27 season were Italian, with 71.9% registered as foreigners. The Italian players' association (AssoCalciatori), led by president Umberto Calcagno, has pushed for a minimum quota of Italians in domestic squads, a proposal the Minister for Sport Andrea Abodi has received cautiously.
For Mancini, widening the eligibility pool is a practical response to a shrinking base of domestic talent. Italy failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, missing a second consecutive tournament after the 2018 and 2022 editions, and is now rebuilding toward Euro 2028.
Capello's lament: "We no longer know how to defend"
While Mancini looked forward, former England and Russia manager Fabio Capello looked backward. Speaking at the Festival dello Sport in Trento, the 80-year-old delivered a scathing assessment of where Italian football has lost its way.
"We no longer know how to defend. The defensive phase is little cared for," Capello said in conversation with Gianni Valenti of La Gazzetta dello Sport. "I have not yet seen in this national team the anger to win back the ball."
He criticised a modern tactical emphasis on possession at the expense of risk. "On the playing level, we focus on ball possession and discourage players from daring, from playing vertically. I'd like to see Italian football return to what it was and what made us proud. Today I don't have much faith, there isn't the humility to understand where we all need to go together."
Capello saved his sharpest words for how clubs treat young players. "Coaches have little courage in playing the young" — a failure he linked directly to the preference for foreign signings. "Young players must be able to show their qualities and instead more opportunities are given to foreigners."
He recalled his own five years in youth football. "At the start of the season I would gather the parents and say: I don't want to hear you shouting at the referee, opponents or others. If it happens, your son doesn't play."
Capello also touched on technical decline. "Today football is faster but technically we are behind. You should teach technique and instead we focus on tactics, because it's easier, but young people need to see the athletic gesture." He cited his work correcting Zlatan Ibrahimović, Marco van Basten and Clarence Seedorf as examples of what coaching once prioritised.
Bastoni's answer on the pitch
The 1–1 result in Paris gave Mancini's project its first tangible sign of life after a 2–0 defeat to Belgium earlier in the international window. Bastoni, whose error had drawn criticism in recent weeks, delivered the equaliser that changed the narrative around his form.
"I never lost faith in myself," Bastoni told RAI afterward. "I don't let two or three episodes ruin my career of over 300 matches. You always have to get back up."
Mancini praised his team's mentality. "Italy did everything as a team, defended as a team, attacked as a team," he said. "It's a journey where there will be beautiful moments and others to suffer. Tonight very positive, against one of the best teams in the world."
Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who produced several decisive saves against the Bleus, agreed. "Against teams like France you have to know how to suffer, and we did it in the right way," Donnarumma said. "When it was time to play, we showed we are strong and can compete with everyone."
France coach Zinedine Zidane offered a frank assessment of his own side's wastefulness. "When you have certain chances, you have to score," Zidane told reporters. "Italy defended well, did their counter-attacks and could have scored."
What changes for fans and clubs
For supporters, the 1–1 draw and the broader discussion around dual-nationality players mark a shift in how the national team will be assembled — one that borrows from the French model Mancini openly admires and responds to a domestic league where fewer than one in three players is Italian. Theussed change arrives as Italy navigates its first Nations League campaign under Mancini's second stint, with a match against Israel looming on Monday.
The tension between Mancini's openness to eligible talent from abroad and Capello's critique of how Italian youth are developed at club level frames the debate: whether the solution lies in casting a wider net internationally, or in reforming a domestic system that critics say no longer produces players with the hunger and defensive instincts that once defined the Azzurri.
