The Italian football federation took another step Saturday toward a rebuild of their national team by hiring Paolo Maldini as technical director and former Brazil international and 1994 World Cup winner Leonardo as advisor.
Giovanni Malagò, who led the Milan Cortina Olympics organising committee and is the newly elected president of the crisis-laden federation, said the appointments of Maldini and Leonard were the first order of business en route to hiring a new coach for Italy's national team.
Of the new leaders, Malagò said: "They are two sides of the same coin; there's a four-year commitment that must take us from now until 2030, to the next World Cup, via the European Championship."
Leonardo, the former coach of Inter Milan and AC Milan, as well as former director of PSG, was a teammate of Maldini's at AC Milan.
Maldini and Leonardo will look to replace Gennaro Gattuso, who left the job after the Azzurri failed to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup.
The top candidates are considered to be two former Italy coaches: Roberto Mancini and Antonio Conte.
Mancini coached Italy to the UEFA European Championship title in 2021 then failed to get the Azzurri to the next year's World Cup before leaving to take over the Saudi Arabia national team.
He left Saudi Arabia in 2024 and also recently left Al Sadd in Qatar.
Conte coached Italy at the 2016 European Championship and recently stepped down at Napoli.
