Carmine Nunziata has called up 27 players for a training camp following a year away due to the Coronavirus pandemic: the Under-19 National Team will meet up at Coverciano on Sunday and remain together until Wednesday 20 January. “We’re looking forward to returning, even if we know we need to take things day by day because these are times when you don’t know what tomorrow will hold” said the Head Coach.

Despite the current situation, the Under-19 European Championship is still scheduled to take place in Romania in July this year, with players born on or after 1 January 2002 eligible to participate. Almost all of the players who will take part in the upcoming training camp have received their first call-ups to the Under-19s: “It provides an opportunity to expand the roster, see different players in action and better understand their quality and the form they’re in. I think that it’s necessary to observe as many lads as possible, providing them with an opportunity to showcase their talents. We want to have a structure in place when, presumably, we take part in the first phase of qualifying in March.”

Indeed, the 2020/21 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying round starts in March and will involve 13 groups made up of four teams. The winner of each group join top seeds Portugal in the play-offs (which will take place between April and May), from which seven teams will join hosts Romania in the finals.

With the current difficulties in mind, Nunziata continued: “The aim of this camp is to begin our preparations for the first qualifying phase and do this as best we can, assessing lads who have played on and off in the past year, with many waiting for the Primavera season to resume. It won’t be easy to paint a clear picture, but we have confidence in our work and hope that some opportunities will arise from a difficult moment.”

The Head Coach finished by expressing his desire for the pandemic to end: “I hope that COVID-19 is defeated as soon as possible so that this suffering comes to an end and we can all return to a normal life.”

Squad list

Goalkeepers: Matteo Carnelos (Udinese), Leandro Pratelli (Empoli), Filippo Rinaldi (Parma);
Defenders: Tommaso Barbieri (Juventus), Nicolò Bertola (Spezia), Leonardo Bia (Cremonese), Alessandro Carosso (Pro Vercelli), Lorenzo Moretti (Inter), Gabriele Mulazzi (Juventus), Stefano Piccinini (Sassuolo), Alessandro Pio Riccio (Juventus), Riccardo Turicchia (Juventus), Mattia Viti (Empoli);
Midfielders: Michael Brentan (Sampdoria), Enrico Di Gesu’ (Milan), Matteo Ghisolfi (Cremonese),
Tommaso Pantaleo Milanese (Roma), Nikola Sekulov (Juventus), Franco Daryl Tongya Heubang (Juventus), Simone Trimboli (Sampdoria), Filippo Tripi (Roma), Federico Zanchetta (Spal);
Forwards: Gabriele Artistico (Parma), Riccardo Ciervo (Roma), Stephane Henoc N’Gbesso (Milan)
Mattia Pagliuca (Bologna), Auron Vranovci (Cittadella)

Staff - Delegation Head: Gianfranco Serioli; Coordinator: Maurizio Viscidi; Head Coach: Carmine Nunziata; Assistant Coaches: Emanuele Filippini and Massimiliano Favo; Fitness Coach: Marco Montini; Goalkeeping Coach: Fabrizio Ferron; Match Analyst: Marco Mannucci; Nutritionist: Maria Luisa Cravana; Doctors: Lorenzo Ticca; Carmelo Papotto; Raffaele Iorio; Physiotherapists: Andrea Cantera; Tommaso Cannata; Secretaries: Aldo Blessich and Massimo Petracchini.