Roberto Mancini’s 34-man Italy squad includes ten players from outside Serie A, with more expected to join in the future, including Giovanni Leoni and Marco Palestra.

Mancini’s Italy squad for upcoming Nations League games against Belgium, France, and Turkey includes an unprecedented ten players from outside Serie A.

The biggest contingent comes from the Premier League, with captain Gianluigi Donnarumma (Manchester City), Matteo Ruggeri (Aston Villa), Michael Kayode (Brentford), Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal), Honest Ahanor (Crystal Palace) and Sandro Tonali (Tottenham).

Issa Doumbia, a former Venezia midfielder, plays for Sporting CP in Portugal; Diego Coppola is under contract with Ligue 1 side Paris FC, while Samuele Inacio and Mohamed Ali Zoma come from Germany and play for Borussia Dortmund and Nuremberg (second division), respectively.

Wednesday’s Gazzetta dello Sport focuses on these ten players, giving their presence in the Italy squad a double meaning. On the one hand, more Italian players have left Serie A in recent years, mostly moving to the Premier League.

On the other hand, Mancini has been trying, as he did in the past, to identify suitable players with dual citizenship who suit his style of play.

Back in 2023, he gave Argentine-born Mateo Retegui his Italy debut, and this time he’s called up Zoma, a 22-year-old winger born in Merate, Italy, whose mother is from Côte d’Ivoire.

“We must find a solution, and the solution is to watch and quickly pick players like Zoma or the others who have dual passports and could have been lost,” Mancini said in his press conference on Monday.