"I saw that the person who should become the national team's coach is Roberto Mancini," said Giovanni Malagò, president of the Italian Football Federation.

"Claudio Ranieri gave his approval just a few minutes ago. Today we have a new coach and a new technical director," he added, confirming the pair would be presented to the media on Wednesday evening.

With that, Malagò brought an end to 17 days of chaos. Barely any time had passed since Paolo Maldini's appointment as technical director was officially announced on 12 July, alongside his old AC Milan teammate, the Brazilian Leonardo, brought in as his special advisor.

A plan that collapsed within days

Five days earlier, the pair had held a press conference to lay out their project to rebuild Italian football starting from the academies, with talks reportedly under way with Spaniard Pep Guardiola to take the coaching job.

Less than a week later, the entire plan collapsed. Maldini and Leonardo resigned overnight after their fallback choice for the coaching role, Andrea Pirlo, saw his appointment scuppered — his contract as a global ambassador for a brand linked to a banned Russian betting site got in the way.

With Maldini and Leonardo gone, Malagò turned to his preferred candidate, Mancini, who returns three years after leaving the post.

Mancini's mixed record with the Azzurri

Mancini managed the Italian national team between 2018 and 2023 and led the side to European Championship glory in the summer of 2021.

But he also failed to qualify Italy for the 2022 World Cup, falling to North Macedonia in the European play-offs — a disaster that had its roots in the defeat to Sweden back in 2018. That same play-off failure struck again this year with a loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina, leaving the four-time world champions out of the finals for a third tournament running.

Following the play-off exit for the 2026 finals, Gennaro Gazzuko resigned as national team coach, and the team's general manager, Gianluigi Buffon, and Italian Football Federation president since 2018, Gabriele Gravina, both stepped down alongside him.

Ranieri steps in for Maldini

Ranieri, who won the English Premier League title with Leicester City in 2016, takes the technical director's seat vacated by Maldini, having left Roma only a few months ago following disagreements with coach Gian Piero Gasperini.

Ranieri, 74, had retired from coaching in 2024 before being persuaded to return for his first love, Roma, from November 2024 through to the end of the season.

Malagò addresses the media reports

"On the question of Italy's coach, what the media reported yesterday was largely accurate — there was a candidate who'd been chosen, and an agreement had more or less been reached, based on the recommendation of technical director Paolo Maldini and advisor Leonardo," Malagò told a press conference.

He continued: "But developments around Andrea Pirlo's nomination, with whom we had reached an agreement, led me not to approve that choice. It wasn't appropriate. I didn't have time to read everything, but from what I saw, I'm sorry to say some people made too much of this whole issue.