Roberto Mancini, the captain of the Italian football team, has set his sights on winning the gold medal for the 2026 World Cup.
The specialist emphasized at an event in Rome on Wednesday: the feeling of disappointment that they did not make it to this year's World Cup in Qatar will not go away. He added: they will continue to do their work, but they will still suffer a lot until December.
"The best thing is when I win with the national team, because with that we can bring incredible joy to the Italian people. Unfortunately, we have to wait four years to participate in the World Cup, but our goal is to win the next World Cup in America," he said. He added that he considers it unfair that the Italian national team cannot be there in Qatar, which did not deserve to miss the event, but they also have to face defeat.
The Italian national team won the European Championship last year, and this Monday finished first in Division A of the Nations League - ahead of the Hungarians, the Germans and the English - so they can prepare for the final four of the series in June.
The last time Italy reached the knockout stage at the World Cup was in 2006, when it finished as a gold medalist. In the two following World Cups, it did not advance from its group, in 2010 it finished fourth behind Paraguay, Slovakia and New Zealand, in 2014 it was overtaken by Costa Rica and Uruguay and only England was behind it. However, in the last two qualifying periods, it already failed in the European qualifying round: in 2018 against Sweden, this year against North Macedonia.
48 national teams - 16 from Europe - will participate in the 2026 World Cup, which the United States will organize together with Canada and Mexico. There are 32 national teams participating in the World Cup in Qatar, including 13 European teams.
(Source: Source: sportrajongo.hu, mti/Photo: pixabay, mti)