Gattuso calls up three debutants in his first Italy squad as manager | OneFootball

The new coach of the Italian national team, Gennaro Gattuso, released his first squad list this Friday, which includes three debutants for the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers against Estonia, on September 5 and 8, respectively.

Gattuso succeeded Luciano Spalletti in June, who had been in charge of the ‘Azzurra’ since August 2023.

The three new faces he called up are defender Giovanni Leoni, 18 years old (recently signed by Liverpool), midfielder Giovanni Fabbian (Bologna, 22 years old), and forward Francesco Pio Esposito (Inter Milan, 20 years old).

Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who lost his starting spot at Paris Saint-Germain, also appears on the list of 28 called-up players.

Italy, which failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, has a lot at stake in this September window.

In its first two group stage matches in June, Italy suffered a 3-0 defeat to Norway, which proved fatal for Spalletti, and beat Moldova 2-0.

Italy is now in third place in Group I, with three points, nine behind leader Norway (12 points), which has played two more matches.

Gattuso, 47 years old, was part of the Italian squad that became four-time world champions at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

List of the 28 players called up by Italy:

Goalkeepers: Marco Carnesecchi (Atalanta), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain/FRA), Alex Meret (Napoli), Guglielmo Vicario (Tottenham/ENG)

Defenders: Alessandro Bastoni (Inter Milan), Raoul Bellanova (Atalanta), Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal/ENG), Andrea Cambiaso (Juventus), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Federico Dimarco (Inter Milan), Federico Gatti (Juventus), Giovanni Leoni (Liverpool/ENG), Gianluca Mancini (Roma)

Midfielders: Nicolo Barella (Inter Milan), Giovanni Fabbian (Bologna), Davide Frattesi (Inter Milan), Manuel Locatelli (Juventus), Nicolo Rovella (Lazio), Sandro Tonali (Newcastle United/ENG)

Forwards: Francesco Pio Esposito (Inter Milan), Moise Kean (Fiorentina), Daniel Maldini (Atalanta), Riccardo Orsolini (Bologna), Matteo Politano (Napoli), Giacomo Raspadori (Atlético de Madrid/ESP), Mateo Retegui (Al-Qadsiah/KSA), Gianluca Scamacca (Atalanta), Mattia Zaccagni (Lazio)

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.