Basketball, 2027 World Cup qualifiers: Luca Banchi picked the 12 for Italy-Iceland
The basketball World Cup qualifiers kick off Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Nova Arena in Tortona, whose final phase will take place in 2027 in Qatar. Italy will be engaged against Iceland, a team it has already faced in Eurobasket qualifiers, with the balance of one win and one loss.
Italian coach Luca Banchi on Wednesday selected the 12 players who will be part of the game roster: they are Amedeo Della Valle, Stefano Tonut, Amedeo Tessitori (who has been given the role of captain), Gabriele Procida, Francesco Ferrari, Tommaso Baldasso, Luigi Suigo, Davide Casarin, Matteo Librizzi, Sasha Grant, Luca Vincini and John Petrucelli.
In comparison to the initial summonses, Elisèe Assui, Diego Garavaglia, Leonardo Candi and Riccardo Rossato have been excluded, but they remain available for the rest of the international window, including the second match scheduled for Sunday 30 in Klaipeda against Lithuania.
Between the summoned players, symbolically, there’s also Achille Polonara, whom the Azzurri coach wanted to pay homage to in a very difficult period for the Marche player, who is fighting a far more important battle than sporting ones and who just a few days ago, on Nov. 23, turned 34 years old receiving numerous attestations of esteem and closeness from the basketball world and sports in general.
