Italy’s new coach Cesare Prandelli may enlist stars Mario Balotelli and Antonio Cassano for the team’s first match since its disastrous exit from the World Cup, an Italian sports daily reported yesterday.
“Cassano could play centre and Balotelli on the left,” Prandelli told sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview.
“But I can’t say whether they will play together in London” in a friendly match against Ivory Coast next Monday, he said.
Prandelli said he believed Sampdoria playmaker Cassano, 28, had finally matured after getting married in June.
Prandelli’s predecessor Marcello Lippi snubbed both Cassano and Balotelli, Inter Milan’s teenaged forward, for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Reigning champions Italy were embarrassingly bundled out of the tournament after three matches following a shock 3-2 defeat to Slovakia that left them at the bottom of what had looked like a fairly easy group, including Paraguay and rank outsiders New Zealand.
Many observers blamed the dismal showing on Lippi’s decision to tap experienced but ageing players over young Turks Balotelli and Cassano.
Prandelli said he believed 19-year-old Balotelli’s imminent move from Inter Milan to Manchester City would improve his chances of playing on the national team.
“I will call up those actually playing on their teams, so I prefer to see Balotelli as a regular player in England than as a reserve in Italy,” Prandelli said.
A move has long been mooted for Balotelli to City, who are managed by his former Inter boss Roberto Mancini.
Prandelli also said he was considering calling up Brazilian-born forward Amauri Carvalho de Oliveira, who recently obtained an Italian passport.
Prandelli said there were 60 players he could draw from ahead of the Ivory Coast game, and that since the friendly is “very early... I will give priority to those I know less well and who have played the most.”
After the Ivory Coast game, Italy will play Estonia on September 3 and the Faroe Islands on September 7 in qualifying matches for the Euro 2012 championships in Poland and Ukraine.
Formerly a Juventus midfielder, Prandelli spent five years coaching Fiorentina, twice taking them into the Champions League, having previously coached Parma and AS Roma.