Unlike Guardiola: the Italian federation announces talks with an experienced coach | Goal.com

Veröffentlicht am 23 Jul 2026 | Lesezeit: 3 Minuten

Paolo Maldini, the new technical director of the Italian Football Federation, and his adviser Leonardo have lifted the lid on the search for the next Azzurri head coach, confirming that the federation has already sounded out a coach other than Pep Guardiola, the name doing the rounds in the press.

The pair spoke at a press conference after a meeting between federation president Gabriele Gravina and the Serie A clubs' association. Those present refused to name the next coach, sticking instead to the broad outlines of the national team's technical project.

According to "Football Italia" today, Thursday, Maldini said the federation hopes to settle the coaching question within the next few days. But he insisted that speed would not compromise the quality of the choice.

"The ideal thing is to sign the coach before the end of the week, but better than that is to wait for the person we truly want," he added. "There is urgency, but it is not an urgency that pushes us to make a rushed decision."

Leonardo, for his part, explained that the federation is working to a clear vision for rebuilding Italian football. The process, he pointed out, goes well beyond simply picking a name and involves constructing a complete project for the future.

The federation has already begun contacting the world's leading coaches, Maldini revealed. "We cannot deny that we spoke with Carlo Ancelotti before contacting Pep Guardiola," he said. "It was natural for us to start with those we consider the best in the world, in order to find out how available they are."

Neither official gave any detail on how those talks went or on Guardiola's willingness to take the job. Ancelotti has just renewed his contract with the Brazil national team, which makes prising him away right now an extremely difficult task.

Guardiola, meanwhile, looks set to turn the post down. Earlier reports suggested he had asked for a huge salary of 20 million euros per year, double what the Italians have put on the table.

Long deliberation preceded Maldini's decision to accept the technical director role, he confirmed, and the new project was the main reason he said yes.

"I felt the scale of the responsibility, and that is why it took time before I was convinced," he said. "When the Italy national team calls you, it becomes difficult to refuse."

His long relationship with Leonardo, and their shared ideas and vision, helped shape the new project, he added.

Leonardo returned to that theme, confirming the aim is not merely to appoint a new coach but to reformulate the entire philosophy of Italian football. That means unifying the work of the senior side, the age-group teams and the academies, a system he said had lacked a single strategy for years.

Clear technical principles are the goal, he explained, running from the academies all the way up to the senior team. The focus falls on developing players technically and encouraging them to attack and take the initiative, an area in which he believes Italian football has fallen behind a number of other countries.

The new coach, Leonardo stressed, must fit this vision. The name alone will not be the deciding factor, he confirmed, but rather how closely the candidate's ideas align with the technical project the federation is building.

Building that project takes time, he concluded, yet he insisted the senior team must be prepared quickly given the official commitments now facing Italy.

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