Antonio Conte has never been shy about his own ambitions. On Monday night, after Napoli’s narrow 1-0 win over Milan, he made sure the FIGC heard him loud and clear.
“It’s expected that my name appears on the list of candidates for the national team,” he said, straight-faced. “If I was the federation’s president, I would consider my name.” No winks, no caveats. Just Conte, reminding everyone that he has already worn the Azzurri blazer and that he believes he should be in the frame to wear it again.
This time, though, the decision will not be his alone.
Italy in crisis, Conte in the conversation
Italy are without a coach again. Gennaro Gattuso walked away on Friday, a day that underlined the depth of the crisis: a third consecutive World Cup missed, followed by the resignation of Gabriele Gravina as president of the Italian football federation. A football nation that once measured itself by World Cups is now wrestling with the basics of qualification.
Into that vacuum steps Conte, at least rhetorically. His contract at Napoli runs until 2027, he is defending a Scudetto, and his team sit seven points behind leaders Inter with seven games to play. On paper, he is locked in. On the touchline, he still looks fully invested. But his words left the door open.
“You know my contractual situation,” he added. “I’ll meet with my president at the end of the season and we will see.”
That president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, has never been one to hide his feelings either.
De Laurentiis opens the door
Speaking to Calcionapoli24, De Laurentiis cut through the usual boardroom platitudes. No grandstanding, no public power play. Just a clear statement: if Conte truly wants the Azzurri job, he will not be the one to block it.
“If Conte asked me to allow him to become the national team coach again, I would say yes,” he said.
It is a striking stance, given the recent history between the two. Conte guided Napoli to last season’s Scudetto but came close to walking away in the summer after a serious fallout with De Laurentiis. The relationship survived, the project continued, and Napoli remain in the fight at the top of Serie A. Yet the president is effectively admitting that, for the sake of the national team, he would let his coach go.
There is a condition, though, and it goes straight to the heart of Italy’s wider malaise.
A job, but no president
Gattuso’s exit came just 24 hours after Gravina’s resignation. The federation is leaderless at the top and, in De Laurentiis’s eyes, rudderless overall.
“But as he’s very intelligent,” De Laurentiis said of Conte, “as long as there’s no [federation] president, and up to now there hasn’t been, I don’t think he sees himself in charge of something so disorganised.”
That line bites. It is both a compliment to Conte and a damning assessment of the FIGC. The job is prestigious, the bench iconic, the shirt sacred. The structure behind it? Far less convincing.
Conte knows that reality better than most. He led Italy from 2014 to 2016, dragged a limited squad into a ferocious, cohesive unit and took them to the Euro 2016 quarter-finals, where they went out on penalties to Germany. His reputation as a national-team coach was forged there: intense, meticulous, capable of squeezing every last drop out of his players in a short tournament window.
It is no surprise his name has surged to the top of the conversation again. The question is whether he wants to return to that chaos without a clear hierarchy above him.
Between Scudetto battles and a nation’s call
For now, Conte’s reality is Napoli. Seven games, a seven-point gap to Inter, and a title defence that still has life. The club built this cycle around him, committed to him until 2027, and endured a turbulent summer to keep him.
Yet the Azzurri job is not just another offer. It is the role that seduces Italian coaches, the one that tests their ego and their patience in equal measure. Conte has already admitted he expects to be considered. His president has publicly said he would not stand in his way.
Italy waits for a new federation president. The bench stays empty. And somewhere between Castel Volturno and Coverciano, the next move in Conte’s career is starting to take shape.
