Daniel Maldini on the National Team: The Inter-Supporting Influencer Is Very Critical
The national team’s journey resumes in the Nations League, where the Azzurri will face Belgium, Turkey, and France. In recent days, head coach Roberto Mancini officially announced the roster, and among the players called up to defend the Azzurri jersey is Daniel Maldini.
The decision to call up the Cagliari forward to the national team has raised eyebrows among many, including Luca Mastrangelo, an Inter-supporting influencer with a massive following on social media: “I’m a huge fan of Mancio—I really like him—but please don’t do this again,” he began during his appearance at the Sportitalia studios. “Explain to me why Maldini is on the national team, especially after this week.”
“Everyone can make mistakes, for heaven’s sake—we don’t want to crucify anyone—but… Back in the day, players like Protti and Hübner would score 20 goals a season and still not get called up. Maldini has played for seven different teams in seven years, scored 17 goals in seven years, and after a week like this, he’s rewarded with a call-up to the national team?” concluded Mastrangelo, who has nearly 200,000 followers on Instagram.
The influencer is clearly referring to the car accident involving Daniel Maldini and other young people last week. The soccer player was in an accident in Milan after the game against Atalanta (in which he also scored the winning goal for the Sardinians), but fortunately no one was hurt.
On social media as well, many have expressed their disappointment with Mancini’s decision: “We’ll never get out of this,” “But why was Daniel Maldini called up?”, “Daniel Maldini called up to the senior national team hahaha—as a well-deserved reward,” “I’ll never understand what they see in Maldini, with all due respect,” “Seriously, did they really call up Daniel Maldini?”—these are just a few of the hundreds of comments on X.
The forward was defended by his coach, Fabio Pisacane: “He deserves this call-up; I didn’t think he was this good. The coach who trained him described him to me as a player with crystal-clear talent, but there’s more to him than that. I was watching him during practice this morning, and he’s truly extraordinary,” said the Cagliari coach.
