Maldini confirms crisis-hit Italy have held talks with Guardiola and Ancelotti

The Italian football federation (FIGC) has talked to Pep Guardiola, the former Manchester City coach, and Carlo Ancelotti, the Brazil manager, about taking over the crisis-hit national team.

It hopes to announce the new Italy coach within the week, with the Azzurri still reeling after failing for a third straight time to qualify for the World Cup.

Paolo Maldini, the former Italy and Milan defender, was named as the federation’s new technical director at the start of the month and was present at a meeting with the Serie A clubs on Thursday, along with the new FIGC president, Giovanni Malagò, and the special advisor Leonardo.

“Honestly, today we can’t give news about what’s happening. You’ve identified one of our targets,” Maldini said when asked about Guardiola in a news conference after the meeting. “We can’t hide that we also talked with Carlo Ancelotti before talking with Pep. Honestly, it seemed right to start with the best in the world, to see their general availability.”

Guardiola left City at the end of last season, bringing to a close a trophy-laden, 10-year spell in which he established the club as a force in Europe and changed the face of English football. The 55-year-old has won numerous major titles across his coaching career including at Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

Maldini and Leonardo spent three days in Barcelona recently to speak with Guardiola about taking the Italy job. “The best thing would be to announce the new coach this week, but even more to wait for the person we really want,” Maldini said. “So there’s urgency, but not so much inside us.”

Ancelotti signed a contract extension with Brazil in May through to the 2030 World Cup. But the five-time world champions had one of their worst ever performances on football’s biggest stage as they were eliminated in the last 16 thanks to a 2-1 loss against Norway.

The 67-year-old has won league titles in Italy, England, France, Spain and Germany. He is also the only coach to have won the Champions League five times.

Italy, four-time world champions, missed out on a third straight World Cup after a playoff loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina in March, prompting the resignations of the FIGC president, Gabriele Gravina, and the head coach, Gennaro Gattuso. Gattuso had taken over from the fired Luciano Spalletti the previous June with the team already flailing following a defeat against Norway in their opening qualifier.

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