Italy is undergoing renewal and this step is bearing some fruit, also because the championship is helping Luciano Spalletti. Suffice it to consider that in the deliberately limited list of 23 disciples who sweat and toil in Coverciano, more than half (12 out of 23) were born from the year 2000 onwards. The 22-year-old Calafiori has become an integral part of the defense led by Inter player Bastoni. In midfield we pleasantly witness the Mole derby transferred to the blue between the 23 year old Juventus player Fagioli and the Granata peer Ricci.
The group, compared to September, has been further rejuvenated by the debutants: the Milan player Gabbia, who has become a leader in Milan’s dazed defense, but also Daniel Maldini, the third of an endless dynasty to wear the blue and the baby Pisilli, born in 2004 , launched by Mourinho and De Rossi and now welcomed by Spalletti. The youngest of a group that has an average age of 24 and a half. To find an equally young national team you have to go back to the times of another Maldini, the coach at the time, Cesare, therefore going back almost thirty years: it was the two-year period 1996-1998. This is highlighted by Corriere della Sera.
The list of those called up
Goalkeepers: Michele Di Gregorio (Juventus), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain), Guglielmo Vicario (Tottenham);
Defenders: Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Raoul Bellanova (Atalanta), Alessandro Buongiorno (Napoli), Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal), Andrea Cambiaso (Juventus), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Federico Dimarco (Inter), Matteo Gabbia (Milan), Caleb Okoli (Leicester), Destiny Udogie (Tottenham);
Midfielders: Nicolò Fagioli (Juventus), Davide Frattesi (Inter), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Niccolò Pisilli (Rome), Samuele Ricci (Turin), Sandro Tonali (Newcastle);
Attackers: Lorenzo Lucca (Udinese), Daniel Maldini (Monza), Giacomo Raspadori (Napoli), Mateo Retegui (Atalanta).