You heard it here first…Goal.com are launching an ambitious campaign for Marcello Lippi to play Paolo Maldini against Brazil on February 10 in what would be a special international farewell before the Milan hero retires. We need your support to help make it happen…
Paolo Maldini will finally retire at the end of the current season and, unlike the past two years, this time there will be no going back. This raises the question – just how do you honour a player, who will probably go down in history as the greatest defender of all time?
It can’t be possible that a monument of the game, who has won seven Scudetti, five Champions Leagues, been capped more than any Milan, Serie A or Italy national team player, can just fade away into the horizon. This is someone who has been consistently world class for the best part of a quarter-
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Italy coach Marcello Lippi has left the Nazionale door open for Roma captain and legend Francesco Totti and Milan stopper Alessandro Nesta.
The Giallorosso decided to hang up his international boots in 2006 after he helped Italy lift their fourth World Cup trophy.
Totti has always said that he wouldn’t return to the national set up but Lippi has dropped a massive hint to his former player and it seems as if the coach wants him back as he leaves the door open.
“Totti and Nesta decided to leave voluntarily and I have respect for their decisions because they gave Italy so much playing for La Nazionale,” Lippi told FIFA magazine.
“However the door will always be open for them. I expect determination and enthusiasm from my players, that’s the only way we can defend our 2006 title.
Milan defender Alessandro Nesta has ruled out the chance of a return to the Italy national team, and says that there is no chance of him overturning his decision.
The 32-year-old has not played for the Azzurri since a Euro 2008 qualifier against Georgia in October 2006, eventually announcing his retirement from the international game last year.
Following the exit of Italy coach Roberto Donadoni, who Nesta did not have a great relationship with, and the return of Marcello Lippi, there have been many reports in the media that the former Lazio star, as well as Francesco Totti, could return for the 2010 World Cup campaign.
While Totti has so far failed to rule out a comeback, Nesta has confirmed that he will not be overturning his retirement decision.
"The national team is a closed cha
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MILAN - A short while ago the official presentation of new Italy coach Marcello Lippi took place in Rome at the Federcalcio headquarters. The World Cup winning coach answered as follows the question regarding a possible return to the National team of Francesco Totti and Alessandro Nesta: "You have to respect people's opinions, in this case of players who have given a lot to the National team. I'm not taking into consideration their return. I will not call them up. If they call? We would talk about it together."
Reports in the Italian press suggest that Alessandro Nesta and Francesco Totti will be persuaded out of international retirement in time for the 2010 World Cup campaign. Carlo Garganese asks whether this would be a good idea…
The inquest into Italy’s underwhelming Euro 2008 campaign goes on, but one thing is for certain, and that is the Azzurri were short of genuine, world class players in Austria and Switzerland. Alessandro Nesta and Francesco Totti undoubtedly fall into this category, and Italy could surely have only benefited from their presence (disregarding the latter’s current injury) had they both not retired from international football last year.
With it increasingly likely that Marcello Lippi will return to the fold to succeed Roberto Donadoni, there have been reports in the media that h
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There are whispers that Francesco Totti and Alessandro Nesta will return to international football if Marcello Lippi returns to the Italy post.
Totti retired from Azzurri duty in July 2007 after a period of uncertainty following Italy’s World Cup triumph in Germany.
He believed that the strains on his body were too great to continue to play for both club and country.
The Roma talisman resisted pleas from fellow players and Coach Roberto Donadoni and watched Euro 2008 from his sofa, but today’s newspapers suggest that he could be lured back to the fold by Lippi.
One month after Totti’s international retirement, star stopper Alessandro Nesta announced that he also wouldn’t answer Donadoni’s call.
However, Nesta said at the time: “Who knows, perhaps things will be different within three years.”
Quarter-finals, 22/6/08 (19.45 UK) Spain 0 - 0 Italy aet
Vienna, Austria
Italy are out of Euro 2008 after a penalty shoot-out, Iker Casillas saving from Antonio Di Natale and Daniele De Rossi. Spain go through to face Russia in the semi-final.
The statistics were on the Azzurri's side, as they were undefeated in competitive matches against Spain since the 1920 Olympics and their last official meeting was a 2-1 win in the 1994 World Cup quarter-final. The Iberians qualified from the group phase with a 100 per cent record, but in all the quarter-finals so far the group winners had gone out.
Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso sat out bans and were replaced by Alberto Aquilani - making his Euro 2008 debut - and Massimo Ambrosini, but the rest of the line-up that defeated France 2-0 remained unchanged. Luis Aragones rested his stars in the 2-1 win over Greece and returned to the same XI that won its opening two games. In a bi
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Roberto Donadoni insists that he hasn’t shut out Francesco Totti and Alessandro Nesta, but veteran boss Carlo Mazzone remains cynical.
Italy secured their place at Euro 2008 with a dramatic win over Scotland on Saturday and Coach Donadoni breathed an enormous sigh of relief.
The ex-Livorno tactician pinned his hopes on a new-look side without Totti and Nesta, but he is adamant that he never closed the door on either star.
“I did everything possible,” Donadoni told Radio Radio TV.
“How can I force them to return to the national side if they aren’t motivated? It would be counterproductive.
“If they change their minds I would listen to them, but certain choices deserve to be respected.”
However, Mazzone believes that Donadoni wouldn’t pick Totti for the wrong reasons and hit out at the Press’ role in Er Pupone’s retirement from international football.
“What do I think when people say that Donadoni wouldn’t call up Totti because he owes something to the n
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Luca Toni and Christian Panucci earned Italy's dramatic first ever victory in Scotland to qualify for Euro 2008!
This was Italy's fourth visit to Scottish soil and they had never won, managing just two draws and a defeat. The first encounter was a 1-0 result on November 9, 1965, followed by a 0-0 in November 1992 and a 1-1 on September 3, 2005.
Group B hung in the balance in Glasgow, as a win would automatically qualify Scotland, while defeat would see Italy and France through to Euro 2008. A draw would put the Azzurri in the driving seat ahead of their final game against the Faroe Islands on Wednesday,
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MILAN - Italian FA president Giancarlo Abete has confirmed Alessandro Nesta's decision not to return to the national team: "Yesterday Nesta clarified his position further. The Federation had made one more approach before the game in Budapest, but Nesta, who has given a lot to the National team, was clear in his position as always."
There are whispers that Francesco Totti and Alessandro Nesta will return to international football if Marcello Lippi returns to the Italy post. 
