Antonio Conte signals his readiness to leave Napoli to rescue Italy from the crisis of missing the World Cup for the third consecutive time.
On 7 Apr 2026 GMT+7, Antonio Conte, Napoli's head coach, signaled his readiness to take over as Italy's national team manager amid the country's biggest football crisis in decades. Italy failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, marking 16 years without World Cup participation—a deeply embarrassing situation for a nation that has won the World Cup four times.
As a result, current coach Gennaro Gattuso immediately resigned, and the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) urgently began searching for someone to rebuild the team.
After Napoli's 1-0 victory over Milan, a reporter asked Conte about the situation. He replied candidly, "Don't forget that last year, during the final three months of the season, the media speculated I would leave Napoli for Juventus, right?"
"The media always needs stories, and it was natural for my name to come up. If I were the president of the Italian Football Federation, I would probably have my own name on the list too. For many reasons, I would choose Conte as a candidate."
He added, "I have worked with the Italian national team before and know its atmosphere well. Representing the country is an incomparable honor. However, I still have one year left on my Napoli contract, and after the season ends, I will sit down with the club president to discuss this matter."
"It's a pity. If we had won the penalty shootout against Bosnia and qualified for the World Cup, everyone would call it a great achievement and say Italy played well. But today, football is decided solely by results. Missing three consecutive World Cups clearly shows that major changes are needed."
"When I coached the national team, many issues were discussed, but I hardly received support from the clubs. Now, everything is seen as a disaster, but even in a disaster, there are always things that can be fixed. If nothing changes, the situation will remain the same, whether we qualify or not. Everyone cares about the national team, and concrete actions are necessary."