France and Italy named their new men’s national soccer team managers — a Frenchman and an Italian, leaving them among the few countries that have very rarely employed foreign coaches.
Zinedine Zidane and Roberto Mancini have different briefs: France are recent winners, while Italy last reached a World Cup in 2014. But they are both natives, a rare thing. In the 2022 World Cup, just nine countries had foreign coaches; this year, 27.
Big nations usually reach for foreigners after prolonged failure — England’s repeated 1990s tournament flops led to the appointment of Sven-Göran Eriksson in 2001, Brazil’s 24 years without a win to Carlo Ancelotti last year. Italy tried to follow suit by approaching Spanish superstar Pep Guardiola, but was rebuffed.