{"id":7693,"date":"2025-06-08T18:35:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T18:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/06\/08\/italian-coaching-contenders-who-will-step-in-for-luciano-spalletti-ahead-of-the-world-cup\/"},"modified":"2025-06-08T18:35:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T18:35:15","slug":"italian-coaching-contenders-who-will-step-in-for-luciano-spalletti-ahead-of-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/06\/08\/italian-coaching-contenders-who-will-step-in-for-luciano-spalletti-ahead-of-the-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian Coaching Contenders: Who Will Step in for Luciano Spalletti Ahead of the World Cup?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"Article-body\">\n<div class=\"Article-featuredImage\">\n<figure class=\"img\">\n            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"Article-featuredImageImg\" alt=\"spaletti.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/sportshub.cbsistatic.com\/i\/r\/2025\/06\/08\/683852ff-8c78-4000-a7d5-cd28b346ff85\/thumbnail\/770x433\/1e858fe89386ace6bfa6bb33846918f3\/spaletti.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"433\" width=\"770\"><br \/>\n        <\/figure><figcaption class=\"MediaShortcode-figcaption MediaShortcode-figcaption--indent\">\n            <span class=\"MediaShortcode-credit\">Getty Images<\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<div class=\"Article-bodyContent\">\n<p>Luciano Spalletti, the Italian coach, revealed his dismissal from the national team following a 3-0 loss to Norway in the opening match of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. He shared this news during a pre-match conference before the upcoming match against Moldova, expressing that he would be removed from his post soon after the game.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;President Gabriele Gravina informed me that I would be stepping down after the Moldova match. I genuinely wished I could remain and make improvements,&#8221; Spalletti stated.<\/p>\n<p>Spalletti took over the Italian team in August 2023 after Roberto Mancini&#8217;s resignation, but his tenure was marked by disappointment in the Euro 2024 tournament, where Italy was eliminated by Switzerland in the round of 16.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about any feelings of betrayal, he responded, &#8220;I haven\u2019t connected with the players\u2014if you think otherwise, name them. In light of recent events, I might have been too lenient given my personality.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Who will succeed Spalletti?<\/h2>\n<p>Current reports indicate two key candidates to take over: former Milan coach Stefano Pioli and legendary manager Claudio Ranieri, known for his remarkable achievement with Leicester City in winning the Premier League a decade ago. Pioli, who is currently managing Al-Nassr, has shown interest in returning to Fiorentina following the departure of Raffaele Palladino, while Ranieri recently concluded his coaching stint at AS Roma. Both coaches are reportedly on the FA&#8217;s shortlist to revive the team, aiming to avoid missing another World Cup after failing to qualify in 2018 and 2022.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Fan Take:<\/strong> Spalletti&#8217;s dismissal highlights the growing pressure on coaches to deliver quick results, especially in a team with Italy&#8217;s storied history. The potential hiring of either Pioli or Ranieri could reshape Italy\u2019s approach in qualifying matches and beyond, reigniting fan hopes for a strong World Cup performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty Images Luciano Spalletti, the Italian coach, revealed his dismissal from the national team following a 3-0 loss to Norway in the opening match of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. He shared this news during a pre-match conference before the upcoming match against Moldova, expressing that he would be removed from his post soon after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[410,263,1345,913,40,31,2341,46,45,2342,2274,42],"class_list":{"0":"post-7693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-ahead","9":"tag-coaching","10":"tag-contenders","11":"tag-cup","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-italian","14":"tag-luciano","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-soccer","17":"tag-spalletti","18":"tag-step","19":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}