Why Gattuso didn’t call up Kayode for the national team: who’s taking his place and Baldini’s call-up to the Under-21s

For Kayode, this would have been his first call-up to the senior national team, but the opportunity has been postponed as Gattuso has opted to select other players for the time being: the manager has confirmed the squad that has played in the qualifying campaign so far; whilst he had considered bringing in a new face, he ultimately chose to call up Marco Palestra, born in 2005 and owned by Atalanta, who is performing very well on loan at Cagliari in his first season in Serie A. Against Northern Ireland, the starter on the right is expected to be Matteo Politano, who will play across the full width of the pitch in a 3-5-2 formation, with the possibility of seeing Cambiaso or Spinazzola in that role as well.

After initially being omitted from the Under-21 squad list for the European Championship qualifiers against North Macedonia and Sweden, Michael Kayode has been called up by Under-21 manager Silvio Baldini to join the squad that will face North Macedonia tomorrow, Thursday 26 March, at 6.15 pm, with their second fixture scheduled for Tuesday 31 March. The Brentford full-back was only called up by Baldini at a later stage, and his selection is not linked to injuries to other players; when asked why he had not been included in the squad, the manager replied that he had always had the player in mind.