Malagò, Maldini and Leonardo: the FIGC tries to reinvent itself (but the coach is just the tip of the iceberg)

By Marco Tirinato — Italian Next Gen

There is a moment, after every failure, when you have to decide whether to simply change the sign above the door or rebuild the whole business. After three consecutive missed World Cups and the still-open wound of Zenica, Italian football sits exactly at that crossroads. And the choice of Giovanni Malagò as the new FIGC president seems to suggest that, this time, the plan is to rebuild.

The first move was as swift as it was symbolic: Malagò brought Paolo Maldini and Leonardo into the federation. Two names who, before being administrators, are two ideas of football itself. The message is clear: no more delays and compromises — the game needs people of the pitch, who lived football at the very top.

Maldini, the legend who finally said yes

Everything has been written about Paolo Maldini, and it will never be enough. One of the greatest defenders in history, able to reinvent himself as full-back and centre-back with the same elegance, to last twenty-five years at the highest level. But the part that matters most here is what came after: as a Milan executive, Maldini showed a technical competence and an eye for talent few in Italy possess. He built, he chose, he took risks on the young.

For years Maldini kept his distance from federation roles. That he has finally accepted is, in itself, huge news: it means he saw a real project, not a photo opportunity. And for a site like ours, which lives on young talent, having a man who knows how to spot and protect it at the head of the federation is the best of premises.

Maldini and Leonardo, a pair who know each other by heart

The other piece is the return of Leonardo alongside Maldini. The two are not mere colleagues: they already understood each other on the pitch and in the boardroom. Maldini more institutional and reserved; Leonardo more international and relational, used to moving between Brazil, France and Italy. On paper it covers two essential dimensions of a modern federation: technical vision and global reach.

The real question is not whether they will get along — we know they will — but whether they will have the real power to make an impact, or remain two great names trapped inside a structure that does not change.

The coaching question: from Guardiola to Pirlo

The hottest file is, of course, the bench. And here Maldini and Leonardo aimed sky-high: they went after Pep Guardiola. A dream more than a negotiation. The Catalan said no — and it was predictable: a national team in rebuild, with its long timeframes, is far from the daily laboratory Guardiola needs.

Now the federation is weighing alternatives, and one name recurs insistently: Andrea Pirlo. It would be a fascinating and risky choice at once: Pirlo is an icon, a refined footballing mind, but with a coaching path still seeking confirmation. As fans we would love to believe in it; as observers we know that bets, with a national team, come at a high price.

But the coach is only the tip of the iceberg

And here we want to raise our eyes. Because the risk, every time, is the same: to concentrate the entire debate on the name of the coach, as if one man on the bench could straighten twenty years of problems alone. He cannot. The coach is the tip of the iceberg. Below the surface lies everything else — and that is where you truly win or lose.

The first project is infrastructure. Italy will host Euro 2032 together with Turkey, and the stadium gap with the rest of Europe is embarrassing: old grounds, insufficient training centres, a geography of talent that stops where the richest clubs end. You do not build a winning generation without the places to grow it. 2032 is not a sporting deadline: it is an infrastructural one, perhaps the last chance to force the country to modernise.

The second front is women's football. In an interview with Cronache di Spogliatoio, Malagò floated the idea of an Italian bid for a Women's World Cup. It is a wise, far-sighted direction: the women's game is growing everywhere, and those who invest now will reap in ten years. A federation that looks only at the men's team is a federation with one eye.

Rejuvenate, and capture talent before it flees

But there is a precondition to everything else, and it concerns culture before accounts: the federation must be rejuvenated. Less factional logic and more merit, fewer committees and more pitch, less managing the present and more building the future. Choosing Maldini and Leonardo is a good start precisely because it breaks a pattern. But a start is not a revolution.

And then there is the theme closest to our heart: capturing talent. Every week on these pages we tell of Italian kids scoring in Serie C, exploding in Primavera, leaving at seventeen for German and Portuguese academies because here they find no space, no trust, no project. Italian talent exists — we document it daily. The problem has always been keeping it, letting it mature, not losing it between fifteen and twenty. A serious federation is measured by this: not by who it puts on the bench, but by how many of its best kids it gets to the top.

Malagò, Maldini and Leonardo hold a historic chance. They can just change the sign — a new coach, two big names, a few headlines — or they can truly open the deep building sites: infrastructure, women's football, merit, youth. We root, of course, for the second. Because the road to 2030 does not run through the national team's bench: it runs through the suburban pitches where, right now, a kid is scoring a goal no one is watching. Our job is to watch him. Theirs, now, is to give him a future.

Forza Azzurri, and forza ragazzi. 🇮🇹