On Monday 3 June, five number 10s from our national team will visit Luciano Spalletti’s team in Coverciano. After the words of the technical commissioner who, during an interview with ‘Corriere dello Sport’, had anticipated this initiative, here is the note from the FIGC which gives further details on this visit: “The ‘Fantastic 5’, as he renamed them in meanwhile the Coach, are the 10 most representative numbers in the history of the national team from the 1960s to today, World Champions or Ballon d’Or winners. Here they are in strict alphabetical order: Giancarlo Antognoni, Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Del Piero, Gianni Rivera and Francesco Totti. The program for 3 June includes a day with the Azzurri for the ‘Fantastic 5’, who will be in retreat from 31 May at the Federal Technical Center to prepare for Euro 2024. They will arrive in the late morning, meet the coach and then have lunch with the team. Then in the afternoon they will wear special jerseys and will be on the pitch with the group during the training session.”
“The Italian expedition to Euro 2024 – declares the federal president Gabriele Gravina – was born under the bright light and precious advice of five stars of our sport. The availability of unforgettable champions of the caliber of Antognoni, Baggio, Del Piero, Rivera and Totti represents a beautiful testimony of love for the blue shirt, a shining example of how the history of the national team is a precious witness which, passing through the different generations , continues to burn with spirit and pride, even before football technique. I thank the ‘Fantastic 5’ for having enthusiastically accepted our invitation and for sharing the spirit of this day. Obviously I also thank Coach Spalletti, who had this wonderful idea, for which the FIGC immediately got to work and which, in our intentions, also wants to be a model of great involvement for all fans.”
The legacy of the numbers 10
Together the ‘Fantastic 5’ have 338 appearances and 84 goals for Azzurro, almost 58 years in the national team (Del Piero the longest with a period of 13 years and 6 months, then Baggio 13 years and 5 months, Rivera 12 years and 1 month , Antognoni 9 years, Totti 7 years and 9 months). They were protagonists of the blue epics, for some stretches some of them even together, from 13 May 1962 (Rivera’s debut in Belgium-Italy 1-3 in Brussels) to 10 September 2008 (Del Piero’s last in Italy-Georgia 2 -0 in Udine).