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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