Azzurri: Who Is Issa Doumbia, the Pure Talent Forgotten in Italy and Called Up by Roberto Mancini?

He is one of the new faces on Roberto Mancini’s Italian national team, and perhaps the one with the most obvious talent. Issa Doumbia has been called up for the first time to the Italian senior national team, after playing three games with Silvio Baldini’s Azzurrini in 2025.

Born in Treviglio to Ivorian parents, he is a highly skilled midfielder capable of playing multiple positions, from central midfielder to attacking midfielder to winger. Doumbia developed as a soccer player at Albinoleffe, where he made his professional debut in 2021 at the age of 18. He played in Serie C for the Bergamo-based club for three seasons before moving to Venezia in 2024.

With Venezia, Doumbia made his Serie A debut in the 2024–2025 season, and the following season, in Serie B, he was instrumental in the orange-and-green team’s immediate return to the top flight, scoring 8 goals in 31 matches: he was perhaps the most promising talent to emerge from the second division.

But Italian clubs did not pursue him aggressively, and Sporting Lisbon beat everyone to the punch, bringing him to Portugal for 20 million euros. In Lisbon, he started the first six league games, recording an assist on Matchday 4 and immediately becoming a key player for the Portuguese side, with whom he also made his Champions League debut.

And now the time has come for him to prove himself with the national team: Roberto Mancini has decided to call him up to see him in action in the Nations League matches against Belgium, Turkey, and France.