Transferred last summer from PSG to the Qatari club Al-Arabi, Marco Verratti was not included in the list of thirty Italian players pre-selected for Euro 2024.
While certain players exiled in the championships of different Gulf countries have been (re)called up by their coaches (N’Golo Kanté with the Blues, Cristiano Ronaldo with Portugal), Marco Verratti has not experienced the same happiness. Having left last summer for Qatar after being gently pushed out by Paris Saint-Germain, the one who now plays at Al-Arabi was left behind by Luciano Spalletti. The pre-list unveiled Thursday by the Italian coach for Euro 2024 does not include the name of the midfielder.
Yet crowned European champion with the National in 2021, Marco Verratti will perhaps not have been so surprised by the choice of his coach who has not actually called him for almost a year, the last appearance of the midfielder in the jersey of the transalpine selection dating back to last June, during a Nations League match against the Netherlands.
Immobile not summoned
This confirmed sidelining is no less a new blow in the career of the native of Pescara. At only thirty-one years old, Verratti has somehow just experienced two successive benchings in less than a year. And he was not the only one to be a victim of Spalletti’s clear-cut choices since at the same time, Ciro Immobile also disappeared from the list. Again not really a resounding surprise since the Lazio striker has never been favored by his coach.
For the rest of the Italian list, Parisian Gianluigi Donnarumma has been summoned. Same thing for the four Inter defenders, Francesco Acerbi, Alessandro Bastoni, Matteo Darmian and Federico Dimarco. As for the attack, Federico Chiesa and Gianluca Scamacca are present. Note that in this pre-list, only three players play outside of Serie A. Luciano Spalletti will submit his official list to UEFA on June 7. With four names less.
The complete Italian pre-list
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG), Alex Meret (Napoli), Ivan Provedel (Lazio), Guglielmo Vicario (Tottenham)
Defenders: Francesco Acerbi (Inter), Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Raoul Bellanova (Torino), Alessandro Buongiorno (Torino), Riccardo Calafiori (Bologna), Andrea Cambiaso (Juventus), Matteo Darmian (Inter), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Naples) , Federico Dimarco (Inter), Gianluca Mancini (Roma), Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta)
Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (AS Roma), Nicolò Fagioli (Juventus), Michael Folorunsho (Hellas Verona), Davide Frattesi (Inter), Jorginho (Arsenal), Lorenzo Pellegrini (AS Roma), Samuele Ricci (Torino)
Forwards: Federico Chiesa (Juventus), Stephan El Shaarawy (Roma), Riccardo Orsolini (Bologna), Giacomo Raspadori (Naples), Mateo Retegui (Genoa), Gianluca Scamacca (Atalanta), Mattia Zaccagni (Lazio)
