"The troublemaker" Balotelli is out of the Italy squad in the "World Cup qualifiers supplement"

The Italian national team squad, announced by coach Roberto Mancini today, to compete in the European qualifying play-off for the 2022 World Cup, was left out of the "naughty" striker Mario Balotelli, preferring to him the Brazilian-born Cagliari striker Joao Pedro.

Mancini had summoned the Turkish Adana striker Demirspor in January to the European Champions training camp, three years after the black striker's last international match.

The call-up of the 31-year-old was a surprise to the squad, which also included Joao Pedro, after receiving the green light to represent the Italian national team.

Many believed that Balotelli would be part of the squad that will compete in the third track of the continental playoffs, where it meets North Macedonia on the 24th of this month in Palermo, and if it wins a guest against Portugal or Turkey on the 29th of it, it will determine the identity of the final card holder.

Italy wished the soul not to miss the finals for the second time in a row, after falling four years ago in the play-off against Sweden.

Italy was a candidate for a direct qualification to the finals after its strong start in the qualifiers and crowned the European champion, but it paid the price for its 1-1 draw in the last two rounds at home against Switzerland and in Belfast against Northern Ireland without goals, so it finished second in Group C behind Switzerland.

The 33-player squad included four players of Brazilian origin, Joao Pedro and Lazio defender Luiz Felipe, who recently obtained Italian citizenship, in addition to last summer's European champions Jorginho and Emerson Palmieri.

Mancini, who is missing his most prominent attacking elements with the injury of Federico Chiesa and his absence from Juventus until the end of the season, will rely on the experience of my last defense colleague Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci, and on the midfielders Nicolo Parilla (Inter) and Marco Verratti (Paris Saint-Germain, France), in addition to Jorginho (Chelsea, England). ), while the front line includes players such as Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli), Ciro Immobile (Lazio) and Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo).

Despite being infected with the Corona virus, Juventus midfielder Manuel Locatelli was part of the squad that will camp in Florence.

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