Antonio Conte has never been shy about his own value. This time, though, his self‑belief collides with a vacancy that cuts to the heart of Italian football.
Fresh from a 1-0 win over Milan on Monday night, the Napoli coach did not dodge the obvious question: could he return to the Azzurri bench after Gennaro Gattuso’s resignation?
“It’s expected that my name appears on the list of candidates for the national team,” Conte said. “If I was the federation’s president, I would consider my name. But, you know my contractual situation, I’ll meet with my president at the end of the season and we will see.”
The words landed in a country still reeling. Italy have failed to reach the World Cup for a third consecutive time, a staggering collapse for four-time world champions. Gattuso walked away on Friday, 24 hours after Gabriele Gravina stepped down as president of the Italian football federation. The Azzurri are rudderless, from the dugout to the boardroom.
Conte, meanwhile, is tied to Napoli until 2027. He delivered last season’s Scudetto and restored the club’s snarling edge, but the relationship with Aurelio De Laurentiis has rarely been smooth. The two clashed last summer and Conte came close to the exit before the new campaign had truly begun.
Seven games from the end of this season, Napoli sit seven points behind Serie A leaders Inter. The title defence has wobbled, not collapsed, and Conte remains the central figure in De Laurentiis’s project. On paper, he is the last coach a club president would willingly lose.
De Laurentiis says otherwise.
“If Conte asked me to allow him to become the national team coach again, I would say yes,” the Napoli president told Calcionapoli24. No hesitation, no public power play. Just a clear statement that, if Conte truly wants the Azzurri, Napoli will not chain him to the touchline.
The remark is not blind generosity. De Laurentiis, as ever, framed it in his own way.
“But as he’s very intelligent, 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.”
There lies the crux. Italy want a leader; the federation currently lacks one. Conte, a man who thrives on structure, control and relentless standards, would be walking into a vacuum.
He knows the job, and the pressure, better than most. Between 2014 and 2016 he dragged an imperfect Italy side into a snarling, cohesive unit, taking them to Euro 2016 and pushing eventual champions Germany to penalties in the quarter-finals. That campaign, defined by tactical discipline and emotional intensity, remains one of the few recent high points for the national team.
The lure of finishing that unfinished story is obvious. So is the risk.
Conte sits at the centre of a triangle: his own ambition, Napoli’s expectations, and a federation in flux. He has already signalled that no decision will come before the end of the season, when he meets De Laurentiis. By then, the Serie A table will be set and Italian football may, or may not, have rebuilt its hierarchy.
For now, the national team’s future hangs on two appointments: a president and a coach. De Laurentiis has made his stance clear. Conte has reminded everyone that his name belongs in the conversation.
The next move is his.
