Giovanni Malagò: A New Era for Italy's National Team

Giovanni Malagò has a new job and an old problem: fix Italy.

Elected as the new FIGC President with almost 69% of the votes, Malagò walks into an office heavy with history and expectation. The mandate is blunt. Rebuild the national team. Restore belief. Lay down a structure that can carry the Azzurri beyond the next qualifying cycle and into a new era.

He does not have time to ease in.

Malagò’s first big calls

Among his earliest and most delicate decisions will be two appointments that define any modern federation: the head coach and the technical director of the national team. Those roles shape everything, from the identity of the senior side to the pathway for the next generation.

Malagò has already shown he is not afraid of major projects. As President of the Organising Committee for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, he has been front and centre of one of Italy’s biggest sporting undertakings in decades. Now he must turn that organisational muscle toward a different stage: Coverciano, the FIGC, and a national team still searching for stability.

The pressure is immediate. The expectation is unforgiving.

Maldini’s name on the table

In this context, one name cuts through the noise: Paolo Maldini.

According to Gazzetta and Corriere della Sera, Malagò’s team has already made contact with the former Milan captain regarding a potential role as the Azzurri’s technical director. No formal agreement, no announcement. But the line has been opened, and in Italian football that alone is enough to ignite debate.

Maldini is not just a legend in boots. His post‑playing career at Milan showed a different side: a director willing to take calculated risks on young players, modern scouting, and a long-term project. The Scudetto win under Stefano Pioli carried his fingerprints, from squad balance to dressing-room culture.

A figure like that at the heart of the national setup would send a powerful signal. It would suggest that Malagò wants a clear football identity, not just a stopgap solution.

A new axis for the Azzurri?

The idea of Malagò at the top of the FIGC and Maldini as technical director has already become the central talking point around the rebirth of the national team. It hints at an axis built on strong personalities, high standards and a shared understanding of what Italian football once was and what it needs to become again.

Rebuilding the Azzurri is not just about picking the next coach. It is about rethinking the pathway from youth levels to the senior side, tightening the connection between clubs and federation, and giving the national team a clear, coherent style that can endure beyond a single tournament.

Malagò’s mission has been spelled out: rebuild, restore, and prepare the future. Maldini, if he accepts, would be asked to give that mission a footballing brain and a defined direction.

The votes have been cast, the president is in place, and the first calls are already being made. Now Italian football waits to see whether Malagò can turn big names and bold ideas into a national team worthy of its history.