Mazzanti-Egonu, it’s total rupture. If coach Paola remains, skip Paris

The news of the exclusion (more correctly than the “no”) of Paola Egonu from the national team bounces on the sites of half the volleyball world. Most of the comments are enriched with new backgrounds and nobody (obviously) believes the official version of the rest period that the Citadel champion would have asked for after the European Championship. One year before the World Cup, the women’s national team is still in the midst of the storm. Because what happened in Brussels, during the Final Four, is actually the consequence of the case that exploded the day after the defeat against Brazil in the semifinal of the World Cup. The Federation believed that the long winter negotiations were holding up and instead they flew away like a house of cards built next to a fan. A year later, the rift appears even deeper. It is quite evident that the coach-athlete trust has been lacking, it is difficult for the relationship to be fixed. It is not even imaginable from where we can start for another mediation as happened at the end of 2022.

To recap

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On the eve of the European Championship, after two friendlies with Serbia, the coach informs Egonu that he will not be part of the starting sextet and that he considers her (based on what he saw in training) as a pawn for the double substitution, once set. Paola thinks about it for a few hours, they have also given her the possibility of giving up on the European Championship. She is torn, but she decides to accept the role of reserve, even if she chews bitterly and smiles little. In reality, however, the situation remains tense even during training. There are other talks with federal leaders. The match with Turkey is the watershed, Egonu from the second set takes the place of Antropova and remains on the field practically until the end. But against Holland Mazzanti restarted Kate leaving Paola on the bench. And before the match there is a close confrontation between Egonu and coach. The relationship is broken. The decision is communicated to the Federation which at this point makes the press release released on Monday, anticipating the Cavalese meeting by a few days to prepare for the Pre-Olympic in Lodz. Precisely because of these tensions, the manager of Egonu and Mazzanti (and of other girls from the national team), Marco Raguzzoni, has not followed the coach from the Marches for a few days. In the history of Italian volleyball only in two other cases had there been such a sensational divorce, Cacciatori with Bonitta (2002) and Piccinini with different coaches during a very long career in the national team. But Paola is only 24 years old… Federal President Giuseppe Manfredi, who is the first (and only) contact person on the subject, dictated the line: until the end of the qualifying round in Paris (it closes on 24 September) there is no talk of future. Even on the interview side, all those that don’t have matches and possible qualification as a subject have been blocked. This is to prevent the understandable media fuss from distracting the national team towards Lodz. The Federation is quite sure of going to the 2024 Games anyway, perhaps through ranking, but qualifying only in June would lead to a series of significant problems, the most serious being the fact that it would compromise proper preparation for the Games, given that Italy would be forced to commit already in the Nations League to maintain the current ranking. With such an important objective on the table, Manfredi isn’t even answering the calls from the prosecutors. And to date he has not approached any substitute, not even among those who are already in charge of the federation. This has not prevented the circulation of indiscriminate names. The easiest and most obvious: Julio Velasco who spent a few weeks in Busto Arsizio (it says in his contract that he can be released if a call comes in from a national team) or Marco Mencarelli.

No contact

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At the moment there have been no surveys or contacts. With bowls still, between October and November, Manfredi and Fipav will decide. The impression is that the result of Lodz is not binding for Mazzanti’s confirmation, neither in one sense nor in the other. So the real risk is that if he stays, Paola won’t play in Paris. Beyond the media resonance and the possible implications-pressures (sponsors and Coni), Fipav will also have to ask itself what image it would give to exclude a player like Paola, even considering Egonu’s performance drops that have occurred in recent tournaments and which determined some of Mazzanti’s choices. Already last year when the Federation had evaluated the possibility of changing on the bench, he had given up so as not to give the impression of following Egonu’s “will”. So? Decision in the autumn with bated breath and many doubts.