Almost six years have passed since his debut in the national team. Born in Vercelli on February 28, 2000, Moise Kean found himself called up to the national team for the first time in November 2018. Roberto Mancini was on the bench, and there was a national team to rebuild that had not participated in the World Cup in Russia the previous summer. Ciro Immobile was there as a centre-forward and his performances were already a topic of discussion. Along with Gianluca Mancini, the Juventus striker was picked from the Under-21 group and quickly made his debut in Genk, in a friendly against the United States.
The first signs were encouraging and things went even better the next time, in March 2019. First Euro 2020 qualifying matches and Kean scored against both Finland and Liechtenstein. It seemed like the beginning of a new era. For the player, for Italy’s attack: “I think he is predestined, he is a player who has great qualities, he is always improving and I think he can become an important player”, said Roberto Mancini on that occasion.
Honeyed words before the first breakup because Kean, after those two goals, didn’t see Coverciano for a year and a half. At the root of this is a European Under 21 Championship held at home in the summer of 2019 in which both he and Zaniolo were kicked out by Di Biagio for unprofessional behavior. Repeated delays to technical meetings and training sessions, unwatchable videos posted on social media. In general, an always unprofessional attitude that led to the decision of the Under 21 coach to exclude them from the group. Mancini’s comment was not tender: “To play for the national team you need technical skills but also behavioral skills”. The consequences were not even trivial: Kean was not called up for an entire season.
He will return to the blue jersey in September 2020. The previous summer, after a complicated year at Everton, his transfer to Paris Saint-Germain had taken place. A choice that at first seemed risky but instead turned out to be the right one. With the role of supporting actor in a group of great champions, he will play what has been the best season of his career so far: 13 goals in Ligue, 17 overall.
But great numbers and excellent performance peaks during the match will not be enough to be redeemed by PSG or to take part in the Euro 2021 expedition. Kean remains in the team until May 28, a friendly against San Marino: Italy wins 7-0 but he is not convincing, he is substituted at half-time and two days later excluded from the list of 28 pre-called players.
So it starts again in September of the same year. After the European Championship victory, Mancini once again calls the 2000 class centre forward to Coverciano. In the meantime, he returned to Juventus for 28 million euros (the Bianconeri club’s response to the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo a few hours before the gong), and scored a brace against Lithuania. Is this the beginning of a new rebirth? No, these are just the latest goals he has scored so far with the Azzurri shirt. Mancini will also call him back in October, only to then leave him at home until the end of his adventure as coach: this is the effect of Kean’s second mediocre adventure in Bianconero.
He returns to the national team in October 2023. With Luciano Spalletti on the bench, a new cycle begins and the coach from Certaldo immediately gives great confidence to the centre forward from Vercelli, called up in both October and November. “My ideal centre forward? A mix between Kean and Scamacca”, the coach will say in a press conference. Here too, a pious illusion because Kean, in the following months, will see more of the infirmary than the green rectangle of the pitch. An injury slows down his season, the failed transfer to Atletico Madrid after failed medical tests puts the tombstone on the possibility of seeing him at the European Championship.
Now a new chapter, yet another. Ten months later here is the new call-up, a call born from the transfer to Fiorentina. After an excellent start to the season, peppered with three goals and a starting role that is finally not in question, Spalletti brings him back to Coverciano and tonight, after the few minutes in Paris, he will field him in the starting eleven in Budapest against Israel. Another opportunity, another starting point for the former child prodigy who has now become a man: in February he will turn 25.
Israel-Italy, click here for probable lineups