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Mancini won’t take Italy job, tips nation to rule football world in future

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Mancini won't take Italy job, tips nation to rule football world in future

Zenit St Petersburg manager, Roberto Mancini has ruled himself out of the running for the replacement of Giampiero Ventura as coach of Italian national team.

After finishing second to Spain in the qualifying group, Italy faced Sweden in a two-legged playoff which they lost 1-0 on aggregate to miss the global competition for the first time in 60 years.

The failure to qualify led to the sacking of Ventura, who had been in charge of the team since June 2016.

While Carlo Ancelotti is the favourite for the job according to reports, Mancini is the other big name on the wish-list but he is not ready to leave his Russian top-flight club.

“Like many of my fellow countrymen, I dreamed of seeing Italy at the World Cup in Russia. Seeing them crash out gave me tremendous sadness,” 52-year-old Mancini told Match TV.

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“I was born after 1958, the last time our team failed to qualify for the World Cup, so I didn’t know what it meant to not be there. Now I can admit it feels surreal and extremely sad.”

When asked if he would replace Ventura, Mancini said: “I am not surprised my name has been mentioned on the list, seeing as they also discussed colleagues with experience who won in various different countries.

“But I am happy at Zenit and in St Petersburg, so I am not thinking about the Nazionale. My objective is to win the Russian league title.”

He went onto add that “in all national teams, there has to be a generational shift at some point, and Italy are obviously at that moment, but I think they will soon get back to being leaders in the football world because there are a lot of talented youngsters coming through.”

Italy are four-time World champions, and they last won the title in 2016 when they defeated France in the final on penalties.

 

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