Cesare Prandelli's selections for
Italy's 30-man preliminary World Cup squad have sparked surprise
and no little controversy here.
The omissions of striker Alberto Gilardino and defender
Domenico Criscito came as a shock to many, above all the two
players.
Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini's inclusion despite a
violent-conduct ban in Serie A, meanwhile, has led some to
accuse Prandelli of hypocrisy.
Gilardino, 31, looked a safe bet to be in the Azzurri's
squad for this summer's tournament in Brazil until a few weeks
ago.
The Genoa striker is reliable goal-scorer with a wealth of
international experience, having scored 19 goals for his
country.
He is in decent form too, with 15 goals to his name in
Serie A this season.
Nevertheless, Prandelli opted to sacrifice him to give
Florentina's Giuseppe Rossi a chance to prove his fitness.
Rossi has been called up even though he has only made three
appearances as a substitute since returning to action for the
Florence club this month, scoring one goal, after suffering a
knee injury in January.
Prandelli had said he would wait as long as possible for
the forward to regain fitness as he is his first choice partner
for AC Milan's Mario Balotelli in attack.
The 27-year-old is joint-seventh in Serie A's top-scorer
rankings this season with 15 goals even though he missed almost
half of the campaign.
There are still big question marks about his fitness levels
though, especially given the physical challenge of playing in
the Brazilian heat.
He is also injury prone, having only come back in 2013 from
a two years on the sidelines because of knee trouble.
Prandelli also favoured several younger strikers over
Gilardino, including Serie A's top scorer Ciro Immobile, his
Torino team mate Alessio Cerci and AS Roma's Mattia Destro and
Napoli's Lorenzo Insigne.
Parma's 31-year-old forward Antonio Cassano, a
talented-yet-temperamental character like Balotelli, has also
made the preliminary squad, which will be trimmed down to 23 men
by June 2.
Prandelli said he wanted to focus on younger players after
Cassano helped Italy finish runners-up at Euro 2012.
But Cassano's form for Parma, who are aiming to qualify for
next season's Europa League, has been too good to ignore.
Another big surprise was that there is no place for
Criscito, a starter in Italy's last official match, March's 1-0
defeat to Spain in a friendly.
The squad also includes Chiellini, despite controversy
about whether he should be dropped for breaching the national
team's code of conduct.
On Monday Serie A's sporting judge banned Chiellini for
three matches for elbowing AS Roma's Miralem Pjanic in the face
during his side's 1-0 win at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday.
The decision means Chiellini will miss the Serie A
champions' last game of the season against Cagliari next weekend
and their first two matches of the 2014-15 campaign, unless the
club successfully appeals.
Prandelli usually drops players temporarily while they are
serving disciplinary bans in accordance with his code of
conduct.
But the coach told ANSA that he did not consider the
incident involving Chiellini, one of his best players, to be
deliberate violent conduct.
Italy squad.
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Salvatore Sirigu
(Paris St Germain), Mattia Perin (Genoa);
Defenders: Andrea Barzagli (Juventus), Leonardo Bonucci
(Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Gabriel Paletta
(Parma), Andrea Ranocchia (Inter Milan), Ignazio Abate (AC
Milan), Mattia De Sciglio (AC Milan), Christian Maggio (Napoli),
Matteo Darmian (Torino), Manuel Pasqual (Fiorentina)
Midfielders: Andrea Pirlo (Juventus), Claudio Marchisio
(Juventus), Thiago Motta (Paris St Germain), Marco Verratti
(Paris St Germain), Riccardo Montolivo (AC Milan), Daniele De
Rossi (AS Roma), Antonio Candreva (Lazio), Marco Parolo (Parma),
Alberto Aquilani (Fiorentina), Romulo (Verona)
Forwards: Mario Balotelli (AC Milan), Antonio Cassano
(Parma), Alessio Cerci (Torino), Ciro Immobile (Torino),
Giuseppe Rossi (Fiorentina), Mattia Destro (AS Roma), Lorenzo
Insigne (Napoli)
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