Roberto Mancini is set to return as Italy’s national team coach, completing one of the more dramatic boomerang moves in international football management. The Italian tactician has agreed to take the job, marking a reunion with the Azzurri that few predicted when he walked away from the role three years ago.
From Al Sadd to the Azzurri
Mancini signed with Qatari club Al Sadd on November 13, 2025, inking a deal that was supposed to run through June 30, 2028. That contract lasted, generously, about seven months before his next move materialized.
This is a pattern. Mancini managed Saudi Arabia’s national team from August 2023 to October 2024, a stint that lasted roughly 14 months. Before that, he helmed Italy from 2018 to 2023, a period that included the high-water mark of his international career: winning UEFA Euro 2020.
That Euro triumph, achieved in the summer of 2021 (the tournament was delayed a year due to COVID), cemented Mancini’s legacy as one of Italy’s most successful modern coaches. The Azzurri beat England on penalties at Wembley.
