Italy's football has gone back a month in time, when Giovanni Malagò had just been elected as the new president of the FIGC and the technical director and coach of the national team were to be appointed. The resignations of Paolo Maldini and Leonardo were announced yesterday by them themselves, as soon as they learned that Andrea Pirlo would not become the national team coach and that the name of former midfielder Thiago Motta did not convince president Malagò at all.
In fact, the impression of both is that the Russian issue was just a pretext to eliminate a candidate who had never convinced the president of the Federation, giving them the assurance that the autonomy promised at the time of the appointment was more of a facade than a reality. Not coincidentally, according to the reasoning made by Maldini and Leonardo, the names of Roberto Mancini and Antonio Conte, who had been excluded almost immediately by the former leaders of the National Team, immediately returned to the scene.
Therefore, it would be better to leave than to remain without decision-making autonomy. This is the opinion of the leaders for only 17 days in the National Team, Maldini and Leonardo, who have not yet made an official comment, although Corriere della Sera reveals a common opinion among them: "These people don't want change."
