Antonio Conte is set to reignite the debate over foreign born players representing Italy by calling up Wolfsburg’s German born midfielder Daniel Caligiuri to the Azzurri squad.
Conte has already came in for criticism for the inclusion of Sampdoria’s Brazilian born striker Éder and also Palermo’s Franco Vazquez who was born in Argentina.
After Éder scored as a substitute in Italy’s 2-2 draw with Bulgaria the front page of Il Corriere dello Sport proclaimed that “A Brazilian Saves Conte”, with many cynical about foreign born players representing the national team.
Caligiuri could be set to feature in the Azzurri’s upcoming matches against Croatia and Portugal next month, according to Bild, after already receiving a call to be put on the list for the Euro 2016 qualifier and friendly.
Conte also came in for criticism from Inter coach Roberto Mancini after the inclusion of foreign born players in their recent squad for the friendly against England.
“I have my own ideas on this,” said Mancini. “The Italian national team should be Italian.
“For me, a player born in Italy deserves the blue jersey; if they aren’t born here, even if they have relatives, they don’t deserve it.”
Caligiuri will be the latest Oriundo of many to have represented the Azzurri, even in recent squads the likes of American born Giuseppe Rossi and German born Roberto Soriano have featured, whilst the Argentine born Mauro Camoranaesi was part of the famous 2006 World Cup winning side.
