Italy Euro 2024 squad guide: Trepidation for a team yet to be moulded in Luciano Spalletti’s image “The manager: Luciano Spalletti was supposed to be on sabbatical. He left newly-crowned Serie A champions Napoli last summer with the intention of spending a year on his country estate in Tuscany. The only vintage Spalletti planned to concern himself with was the latest Sangiovese from his vineyard. Not the 2024 Azzurri. But in August, the president of the Italian FA, Gabriele Gravina, called. Roberto Mancini had quit, citing differences over a reshuffle of his coaching staff. A reshuffle he initially endorsed. …”
NY Times/The Athletic

Spain Euro 2024 squad guide: A teenage record-breaker and Rodri in the middle, but the scandal lingers “The manager: Even Luis de la Fuente himself was surprised when he was promoted to take over Spain’s senior team by Luis Rubiales, who had fired previous coach Luis Enrique following Spain’s last-16 exit to Morocco at the 2022 World Cup. De la Fuente was a double La Liga champion at left-back with Athletic Bilbao in the early 1980s. After moving into coaching, he worked with different generations of Spain’s national teams, winning an Under-19 European Championships in 2015, the Under-21 Euros four years later and getting the under-23s to the final of the most recent Olympics in 2021. …”
NY Times/The Athletic

Croatia Euro 2024 squad guide: One last hurrah or a tournament too far? “The manager: Zlatko Dalic is the third longest-serving international manager at Euro 2024 and it’s a testament to what he has achieved with Croatia that he remains one of the most popular in his homeland. That would have been tough to predict when he was appointed in 2017, with his previous jobs being boss of Slaven Belupo, Al Faisaly, Al Hilal and Al Ain. He won the UAE Pro League with the latter and a report in Croatia at the time of his appointment with the national team stated he had earned enough money for three lifetimes, let alone one, which was helpful because the Croatian FA didn’t have much to pay him at the time. …”
NY Times/The Athletic

Albania Euro 2024 squad guide: A group of unlikely heroes in more ways than one “The manager: Sylvinho! You know, the old Arsenal and Barcelona left-back? Yeah, he’s Albania’s manager. Interesting, right? The Brazilian’s playing days ended in 2010 after a brief stint at Manchester City, then he spent the best part of a decade earning his corn as a coach at Cruzeiro, Sport Recife and Nautico in Brazil, then as Roberto Mancini’s assistant at Inter Milan, then Tite’s assistant with the Brazil national team. …”