Italy: Backlash Against Roberto Mancini Over Daniel Maldini’s Call-Up

Daniel Maldini’s call-up to the national team is sparking heated controversy on social media. The Cagliari forward is coming off a week that would be an understatement to call “complicated,” between theSunday’s car accident and all the fallout that followed in the days that followed.

Despite this, Italy’s head coach Roberto Mancini has decided to stick to his plan and has included the player on the list of 34 Azzurri selected for the upcoming Nations League matches against Belgium, Turkey, and France.

“We’ll never get out of this,” “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 exceptional talent, but he’s more than that. I was watching him during practice this morning, and he’s truly extraordinary,” said the Cagliari coach.