Roberto Mancini has left Italy’s national team to coach Saudi Arabia. It is a symbol – for the decline of all kinds of football traditions.
Gabriele Gravina broke his elegant silence at the weekend. The head of the Italian Football Association publicly complained that the short-term loss of his national coach Roberto Mancini at the beginning of August was not revealed to him by himself, but by his wife.
Given their long friendship, he would have appreciated “if Mancini had expressed his will by looking into my eyes”.
Silvia Mancini as mastermind?
However, his wife Silvia apparently took on this job – the lawyer, who also represents her husband’s professional interests, is said to have been instrumental in the deal that was behind Mancini’s resignation from Italy in the first place: the four-year contract that Mancini signed in Saudi Arabia has received as future national team coach.
This document should guarantee him around 25 million euros per year for three years. Mancini is one of the highest paid football coaches of all time.
Italy’s national team looks into the tube
The question of morality or honor is often asked in this matter – is it reprehensible when a football worker takes such a well-paid job and leaves his old colleagues hanging for it?
You have to put it that way because Italy’s national team, after recently missing out on qualifying for the World Cup, actually wanted to go full throttle into the upcoming European Championship qualifiers with coach Mancini from September. The team will now do that with the newly brought in Luciano Spalletti on the sidelines.
money or love?
Based on a once very successful German TV game show, this question, which looks deep into the football business, is being asked more and more frequently in connection with the new jobs in Saudi Arabia. money or love? Toni Kroos recently came out as a Saudi rejecter – when a young top talent decided for Saudi Arabia instead of a top European club. He is not a supporter of sacrificing sporting ambitions just for money.
“This is an incredibly bad example for many young youth players when the main motivation is to make money”, said Kroos on the move of 21-year-old Gabri Veiga from Celta Vigo to Al Ahli in the Saudi league. Liverpool, ManCity, Naples and Bayern are also said to have been interested in the young man.
criticism of changing players
The Saudi Arabian club reportedly pay a transfer fee of around €40m to Spain. Veiga is said to have a contract until 2027 and increase his salary to around 12.5 million euros – around six times his previous earnings.
European Champions 2021: Giorgio Chiellini and Roberto Mancini
Roberto Mancini also followed the reputation, which was so temptingly underpinned by money. “I didn’t kill anyone”, he complained weeks ago about the insults after the resignation in Italy. Well, when the new contract was signed in Saudi Arabia, he released a smart video.
“Writing history with Saudi Arabia”
The 58-year-old announced on social media on Sunday that he was “delighted and honored” to now have a new job. He also posted an elaborately produced video of himself that shows him as a master maker: he had made Italy European champions in 2021 at London’s Wembley Stadium. “I made history in Europe. Now it’s time to make history with Saudi Arabia,” says the coach in the video.
With this change at the latest, Europe’s traditionalists should also be clear: the football world is undergoing massive change, in which a country like Saudi Arabia can establish itself as a big player, despite all the human rights violations. At this point we remind you of a statement by Amnesty International: In 2022 alone, 196 people were executed in this country without a fair trial.