Leonardo Bonucci joins Club Italia. The former Azzurri defender will be assistant coach of the Italy Under-20 team led by Bernardo Corradi, which will be involved in the World Cup in Chile next September. European champions in 2021 and one of the eight men with a 'century' for Italy - fourth overall for number of appearances (121) behind Gigi Buffon (176), Fabio Cannavaro (136) and Paolo Maldini (126) - Bonucci is one of the iconic players of the last twenty years, protagonist, along with Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini, of that 'BBC' that has written the recent history of the Juventus defence and the history of Italian football.

‘I am proud to accept President Gravina's proposal and I am ready for this experience,’ Bonucci said. ‘Returning to wearing the Azzurri shirt will be really exciting. This is the time for me to observe, study and learn. The chance to do so alongside a great person and a coach who already done so much work with the boys like Bernardo Corradi, and his staff, will allow me to combine personal knowledge and experience with the vision of new young Azzurri, in the hope of seeing them realise their dream. On this path, I will not lack those values that have allowed me to have a great career: humility, work, team spirit and sacrifice. Thanks again to the president and the coach for this great opportunity.'

‘Leonardo is coming back home,' said FIGC president Gabriele Gravina. 'He does it in a different role, but with the same enthusiasm and love for the Azzurri shirt as always. As we have already done with Daniele De Rossi, we are happy to be able to offer an opportunity for the Azzurri champions to mature as they embark on a coaching career. I am convinced that Leo can grow a lot in the Azzurri and, at the same time, can offer an important contribution to the construction of the cantera of federation coaches. The project of strengthening Club Italia continues through the involvement of professionalism and personalities of great depth, convinced, as we are, of the precious contribution that former athletes of such a high level can offer.'

LEO AND ITALY. One of the architects of the 2021 European triumph, Bonucci has participated in two World Cups (South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014) and three European Championships, reaching the finals in 2012 (Poland and Ukraine) and the quarter-finals in 2016 (Germany), before his success in the 2020 tournament, postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic. He made a total of 121 appearances for Italy, scoring eight goals, including the equalising goal at Wembley in the European Championship final against England. In addition to the continental title at EURO 2020 and second place at EURO 2012, he won the bronze medal at the 2013 Confederations Cup in Brazil and the 2021 and 2023 editions of the Nations League.

First called up by former coach Marcello Lippi on 28 February 2010, he made his debut three days later, aged 22, in the friendly against Cameroon. On 3 June, in his second appearance with the Azzurri, he scored his first goal in Brussels in the friendly against Mexico (a 1-2 defeat). Called-up but never used in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, he played all the matches in the 2012 European Championship in Ukraine and Poland, which saw Italy losing to Spain in the final. After finishing third in the 2013 Confederations Cup, he played only in the third and final match of the round against Uruguay in the following year's World Cup in Brazil, which saw the Azzurri eliminated from the tournament. He captained the Azzurri for the first time under Antonio Conte's management on 4 September 2014 in the friendly against the Netherlands, and was one of the mainstays of Italy at the 2016 European Championship in France, which ended in the quarter-finals against Germany: he scored the equalising penalty against the Germans, only to miss one of the shots in the penalty shootout.

After reaching the 100th appearance for Italy on 25 March 2021 in Parma against Northern Ireland, three months later he was among the protagonists of the triumphant journey to the European Championship: scoring on 11 July 2021 in the Wembley final against England - at 34 years and 71 days the oldest scorer in a European Championship final - he also converted one of the penalties that gave Italy the second continental title in its history. Named the best player of the final, he was included in the event's All Star Team. He is the Italian footballer with the most appearances in the knock-out stage of the European Championships (18, one more than Buffon and Chiellini). After Giorgio Chiellini's farewell to the team, he inherited the captain's armband from his friend and companion of a thousand battles, wearing it for the last time in June 2023 on the occasion of the Nations League semi-final loss to Spain.