Luciano Spalletti returns to the Acerbi case: "The truth is a'different"

Luciano Spalletti, a guest at the Festival dello Sport in Trento, returned to the issue related to Francesco Acerbi, who had refused the former national team coach’s call-up for the 2026 World Cup qualifying matches against Norway and Moldova at the beginning of June.

“More and more are those who find excuses or reasons for not fulfilling their commitments and for not taking important responsibilities – he began.

’Fewer and fewer are those who put their faces on it. The chance to say those things he said was there and instead he said them too late. Acerbi accepted the pre-convocation: the day before summoning the players I phoned him and told him he was right because the field had said one thing clearly and he is still one of the strongest”.

“In the semifinal with Barcelona he scored the decisive goal and I told him that he was still one of the best while before I had tried to exclude him to give strength to the youngsters– explained the Azzurri’former coach.

I wanted to summon him for the key-match against Norway, we had three injured players: Gabbia, Buongiorno and Gatti. I told him this: ‘The field said you are still a leader and I had thought of summoning you'”.

“He answered me, after calling him several times. He told me, ‘If you say so, I am pleased and I am coming’ three to four days passed, he sent me a message and said, ‘I am not coming anymore’. If he is happy like that, good for him, but things didn”t turn out the way he told it”.

Closing on Gennaro Gattuso’s Italy: “He is a talented one, he has qualities that are needed. It’s crucial to have good relations with footballers, I loved them and defended them to the hilt. I would have preferred not to look bad with the national team, but I transferred too much of my love for soccer. I made a mistake, I clogged up the players with things said and demanded while they need to be lighter because they already have so much pressure. I tried to make them understand that soccer is serious, but unpleasant things happened right away. For me being in Coverciano was like being in heaven, but it is not a situation I can quickly forget. I didn&#8217t miss anything, and there are 20 players with whom to build a competitive team. Italy is going to the World Cup because the players are strong and Gattuso immediately found a square by deploying the two forwards”.