Paolo Maldini and Leonardo have resigned as the Italian football federation's technical director and advisor, walking away from the project just 16 days after taking up the posts, in a collapse triggered by a dispute over who should coach the national team.
The two AC Milan greats were installed on July 11 by Giovanni Malagò, the former Italian Olympic Committee chief who was elected FIGC president in June and tasked with rebuilding a federation still reeling from Italy's World Cup play-off exit to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Maldini and Leonardo were meant to lead that reconstruction, starting with the choice of a new head coach to replace Gennaro Gattuso.
Their pick was Andrea Pirlo, the 2006 World Cup winner and former Juventus and Milan midfielder now coaching in Turkey. But Malagò refused to sign off on the appointment, citing Pirlo's role as a global ambassador for Fonbet, a Russian betting company, at a moment when Italian officials and politicians have been wary of any commercial association with Russian-linked brands.
With their preferred candidate blocked, Maldini and Leonardo chose to leave immediately rather than pursue an alternative they had not championed, according to reporting from Sky Sports and several Italian outlets including ANSA and Corriere dello Sport.
Pirlo himself addressed the affair publicly, saying that "during my career... I have always carried out my activity in full respect to the laws," and describing his Fonbet arrangement as "exclusively commercial and sporting in nature."
Before the collapse, the federation had also sounded out other names for the vacant bench job. Pep Guardiola turned down an approach for personal reasons unrelated to football, while Carlo Ancelotti was contacted but remains contracted to coach Brazil.
The abrupt departures leave Malagò needing to rebuild the technical set-up for a second time in barely two weeks. Roberto Mancini, who previously led Italy to European Championship glory in 2021, has re-emerged as the president's favoured option, with Antonio Conte also under consideration. Giorgio Chiellini's name has surfaced as a possible replacement for Maldini in the technical director's chair.
It is the latest upheaval for a federation still absorbing the fallout from missing next year's World Cup. Gattuso, team manager Gigi Buffon and former federation president Gabriele Gravina all left their posts after Italy fell at the play-off stage, a failure that prompted Malagò's own move from Olympic sport into football administration.
Malagò had previously said the federation was working through a "Plan A, Plan B and Plan C" for both the head coach and technical director roles. That contingency planning now looks set to be tested in full, with a new appointment expected within days as Italy tries to steady itself before European Championship qualifying begins.
