Two players born in Brazil and who have Italian citizenship, defender Luiz Felipe and striker João Pedro, will participate in a kind of entrance exam that coach Roberto Mancini will promote this week.
The coach of the Italian national team has called up 35 players (or more than three teams) to participate in training in Coverciano that will help him define the squad for the knockout game against North Macedonia on March 24.
The winner of that match, in Palermo, will challenge the winner of Portugal x Turkey, who also didn’t get a direct spot for the Qatar-2022 Cup in the European Qualifiers.
Whoever triumphs in this final duel stamps their passport to the World Cup in the Middle East country, which will start on November 21st.
Luiz Felipe, 24 and 1.87 m, has played for Lazio since 2017 – before going to Europe, he played for Ituano-SP. This season, he started 20 of the Roman team’s 23 games in the Serie A.
Atletico-MG sire, João Pedro, 29 and 1.84 m, passed through Palermo-ITA, Vitória de Guimarães-POR, Peñarol-URU, Santos and Estoril-POR before arriving at the modest Cagliari, in 2014.
His football has grown year by year and he is one of the best players on the team, being also its captain and top scorer.
He is an absolute starter and this season he has scored ten goals for the Italiano, in 23 matches. Season that is no exception. In the 2019/20 season, there were 18 goals in Serie A. In the 2020/21 season, another 16.
“He has enormous qualities and should deserve a call-up because he is playing well,” Mancini said of João Pedro in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport at the end of 2021.
“We didn’t ask him to become naturalized”, stressed the coach. “He married an Italian woman, so he has dual citizenship.”
Luiz Felipe and João Pedro were called for the first time to try their luck at Squadra Azzurra.
If they impress Mancini, there is a chance they will join other Italian-Brazilians who have been defending the four-time world champion, absent from the Russian Cup in 2018.
Midfielder Jorginho (Chelsea), left-back Emerson (Lyon, on loan from Chelsea) and defender Rafael Tolói (Atalanta) were crowned Eurocup champions last year with Azzurri.
The biggest chance is for João Pedro, as there is an open spot in the Italian attack due to the serious knee injury of Chiesa (Juventus), one of the highlights of the selection in the Euro.
Luiz Felipe, who competes with Tolói, operates in a position in which Italians are historically very good.
In Coverciano’s CT will also be training Beques Chiellini, Bastoni, Scalvini and Gianluca Mancini, who is not related to the coach from Italy.
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