Italian football does not do quiet rebuilds. Every reset arrives trailing wreckage \u2013 a resignation, a penalty shootout, a humiliation that rewrites the national mood.<\/p>\n
This summer is no different. The Azzurri are without a permanent coach, without a World Cup place, and without a coherent answer to the question that has haunted the Nazionale for nearly a decade: where, exactly, is the next generation?<\/p>\n
The answer, it turns out, may be wearing black and yellow.<\/p>\n
Baldini\u2019s Gamble: A Squad Built for the Future, Not the Present<\/h2>\n
Interim coach Silvio Baldini<\/strong> \u2013 brought in from the Under-21 setup after Gennaro Gattuso<\/strong> resigned following the play-off defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina that confirmed Italy\u2019s absence from the 2026 World Cup \u2013 has named a squad of striking youth and deliberate intent for June friendlies against Luxembourg and Greece.<\/p>\n The average age is 20 years and six months. Baldini was unambiguous about his philosophy: there was, in his own words, \u201cno point\u201d recalling the established Azzurri core. This window belongs to the next cycle.<\/p>\n Three of the most intriguing inclusions wear the colours of Borussia Dortmund. Samuele Inacio<\/strong>, 18, is a forward who only this month made his first Bundesliga start \u2013 and scored, against Eintracht Frankfurt, on debut. He has since signed a contract extension to 2029, a clear signal of how highly BVB value him.<\/p>\n Inacio is the son of former Napoli and Serie A striker Inacio Pi\u00e0, and has represented Italy from Under-15 through Under-19 level, yet has never featured for the Under-21s.<\/p>\n Baldini has bypassed that route entirely. Joining him from the Signal Iduna Park are centre-back Filippo Mane<\/strong> \u2013 a projection pick given his injury-disrupted season \u2013 and midfielder Luca Reggiani<\/strong>, a stalwart of Dortmund\u2019s youth structure rather than its senior XI.<\/p>\n Three Dortmund starlets, fast-tracked straight to the Nazionale.<\/p>\n The mandate Baldini has been handed is explicit. These June fixtures \u2013 June 3 in Luxembourg, June 7 in Crete \u2013 are not results operations.<\/p>\n They are identification exercises, a deliberate attempt to valorizzare i giovani at senior level before a permanent coach arrives and imposes their own hierarchy.<\/p>\n The tension with Greece over Italy\u2019s youth-first approach to international fixtures is not new; what is new is how completely Baldini has embraced it as doctrine rather than necessity.<\/p>\n Gianluigi Donnarumma<\/strong> \u2013 the Manchester City goalkeeper, Italy\u2019s captain \u2013 is the lone concession to experience, present not as a performer but as a guide.<\/p>\n Around him: Pietro Comuzzo<\/strong>, Niccol\u00f2 Pisilli<\/strong>, Marco Palestra<\/strong>, and Francesco Pio Esposito<\/strong> as the thin connective tissue of recent Nazionale experience, and then a cohort of genuine debutants \u2013 Davide Bartesaghi<\/strong> of Milan, Atalanta\u2019s Honest Ahanor<\/strong>, Francesco Camarda<\/strong> on loan at Lecce.<\/p>\n The breadth is remarkable. So is the gamble implicit in it: that these June minutes will mean something when the permanent CT eventually arrives and must decide whether Baldini\u2019s experiment becomes a template or a footnote.<\/p>\n Also notable is how many of these players are based abroad. Beyond the Dortmund trio, Fabio Chiarodia<\/strong> operates at Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach, and Luca Koleosho<\/strong> plays his club football for Paris FC.<\/p>\n Italian coverage has interpreted this frankly \u2013 as a tacit admission that Serie A clubs have been slower to guarantee first-team minutes to teenagers, and that the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 academies are, right now, doing Italy\u2019s development work for them.<\/p>\n The Inacio call-up is where the sporting intrigue sharpens into something more consequential. European coverage has framed this not merely as a routine promotion but as a pre-emptive move \u2013 Italy asserting allegiance with a player whose footballing education has been entirely German.<\/p>\n Dortmund\u2019s decision to extend his contract to 2029 and hand him a Bundesliga debut in the same month as his senior international call-up is not coincidental.<\/p>\n With the Italy head coach role still unresolved, the question of who shapes this generation\u2019s identity \u2013 Italian federation or German club infrastructure \u2013 is live and unresolved.<\/p>\n Mane and Reggiani present a different kind of case. Neither arrives on the back of sustained senior minutes.<\/p>\n Their call-ups are projections, bets on physical and technical profiles that have impressed in youth football but remain untested at the top level.<\/p>\n That is the nature of this squad: it is a futures market, not a statement of current strength.<\/p>\n Whether Italy\u2019s leverage over these dual-eligible talents holds will depend on what comes next.<\/p>\n A permanent coach who shelves the experiment and returns to the familiar Azzurri names risks losing the window entirely.<\/p>\n Inacio, embedded at Dortmund, extending contracts, scoring on Bundesliga debut \u2013 he does not need Italy to believe in him. Italy needs him to believe in Italy.<\/p>\n That is the tension at the heart of Baldini\u2019s squad. The philosophy is right. The urgency is earned.<\/p>\n After two consecutive World Cup absences, the Azzurri cannot afford to wait for talent to come to them.<\/p>\n They have to go and get it. The Dortmund pipeline suggests they know where to look. Keeping what they find is the harder part.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Young](\"https:\/\/www.footitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/samuele-inacio-dortmund-inline.webp\")
<\/figure>\nThe FIGC Blueprint: Valorizzare i Giovani, Whatever the Cost<\/h2>\n
![\"Gianluigi](\"https:\/\/www.footitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gianluigi-donnarumma-italy-inline.webp\"\/)
![\"Gianluigi](\"https:\/\/www.footitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gianluigi-donnarumma-italy-inline.webp\")
<\/figure>\nWhy Dortmund Are Watching \u2013 and What Italy Risk<\/h2>\n