The national team re-embraces Daniele De Rossi. The former Azzurri midfielder today officially joins the national team’s technical staff, led by Roberto Mancini: he will join Chicco Evani, Attilio Lombardo, Giulio Nuciari and Fausto Salsano to start a new adventure, this time in the dugout, after a long and successful career as a footballer. De Rossi signed a contract this morning at the headquarters of the FIGC in Rome, binding him to the Azzurri until the end of the European Championship. He will return on Sunday to pass through the gates at Coverciano, Italy's home base ahead of clashes with Northern Ireland, Bulgaria and Lithuania, a place where for years he was one of the absolute protagonists.

"I am proud - commented Daniele De Rossi - to start this new career with the national team and I would like to thank both President Gravina and Coach Mancini for their trust and for the opportunity. It will be exciting to return to Coverciano, which for me means going home and finding many former teammates and friends among the staff and in the group, and I can't wait to get started. I will do it with enthusiasm, knowing that I am only at the start and I still have a lot to learn, but I also hope to be able to help the team. "

"I am very pleased - commented Coach Roberto Mancini - that Daniele is joining our group, I’m sure he will be able to provide an important contribution for the players, and I hope that this first coaching experience for him will prove useful for the future". "I am sure - added the Federation President Gabriele Gravina - that his history, his experience, his unbreakable bond with the Azzurri shirt can become an added value for a team that has already shown that it can aspire to prestigious results. The coach will know how to enhance his skills within the group and the staff. This new experience will also guarantee Daniele further growth on his technical training journey".

His career with the national team. World champion in 2006 and European Championship runner-up in 2012, De Rossi has always had a very strong bond with the Azzurri shirt: he was a point of reference for many coaches, a key player, and a team player, one of those players who always put his body on the line, for better or for worse. Authoritarian and ambitious on the pitch, he always fought for the Azzurri cause, even when conditions were less than ideal, demonstrating on several occasions his link with that jersey that unites all Italians. The strong personality, the character of a leader, and the sense of belonging to the national team is what immediately made him one of the most listened to and followed players, by his teammates as well as technical staff, always proving to be an example for everyone.

After his debut with the Under 19s in November 2001, he made four appearances with the Under 20s before winning his first trophies with the Under 21s. On 8 June, in the final against Serbia and Montenegro, he scored one of the three goals that brought Italy their fifth continental title, following on from his bronze medal victory in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. 

His debut with the senior national team on 4 September 2004 was unforgettable, when he scored the first goal of the match which proved decisive for the victory against Norway in a 2006 World Cup qualifying match. A World Cup that forever changed the former Azzurri midfielder’s career, which started badly for him after being sent off in his second match against the United States in the group stage, but which ended in glory. Finding himself back among the ranks after being banned for four games, in the final against France Daniele scored the third of the five penalties which gave Italy their fourth ever World Cup. 

He has played in three World Cups with the Azzurri, three Euros and two Confederations Cups, and has made a total of 117 appearances, putting him fourth in the list of most-capped Azzurri players ever, behind Gigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro and Paolo Maldini. The 21 goals to his name make him the 12th best Azzurri marksman and the second-most prolific centre-midfielder, surpassed only by Adolfo Baloncieri. If a long and happy love-story is the best way to describe the relationship between De Rossi and the national side, its ending was bitter when he hung up his boots for the Azzurri in November 2017 after the defeat in the World Cup play-offs against Sweden. Now a new story is beginning, and it is still yet to be written.