The Italian Football Federation will not be getting its favorite candidate for the position of national coach. Claudio Ranieri (73) does not want to succeed Luciano Spalletti.
On the evening of Luciano Spalletti’s last international match, his successor seemed to have already been found – but now the Italian Football Federation must start its search again. Claudio Ranieri told Italian news agency Ansa on Tuesday that he had turned down the offer to become Italy’s national coach in order to focus fully on his role as advisor at AS Roma.
“I have decided to devote myself entirely to my new role,” Ranieri told the agency. The Italian Football Federation (FIGC), led by president Gabriele Gravina, had chosen the 73-year-old coach as the successor to Luciano Spalletti, whose dismissal was announced on Sunday. On Monday evening, Spalletti sat on the bench for the last time in a 2-0 World Cup qualifier win over Moldova, with Ranieri set to take over – but that will now not happen.
He had thought long and hard about it and wanted to thank Gravina for “an offer that is a great honor,” Ranieri said. “But I have decided to make myself fully available to Roma in my new position.” After taking over the Italian capital club for the third time in his coaching career last November, it had already been planned that he would step down as coach at the end of the season and move into a management role as a consultant.
The association had planned for Ranieri to perform this role alongside his job as national coach. Roma owner Dan Friedkin had not stood in his way in this regard, as had already been leaked on Monday, Ranieri added: “The decision is entirely mine.”
Will Pioli now succeed Spalletti?
The search for a new coach to lead Italy to the 2026 World Cup after missing out on two consecutive tournaments continues. Former Milan coach Stefano Pioli, who had been linked with the job alongside Ranieri after Spalletti’s departure, is considered a possible candidate. Pioli is currently under contract with Cristiano Ronaldo’s club Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, but according to media reports, he is ready to leave the club.
