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Samuele Inacio Italy 2026Getty Images
Emanuele Tramacere
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Italy, zero minutes in four matches for Samuele Inacio: what happens now?

Italy
S. Inacio
Brazil

The long wait for the Borussia Dortmund striker’s “anti-poaching” debut has not arrived

Italy under Roberto Mancini kept their momentum going with another win over Turkey, this time 3-1 at home, leaving the Azzurri firmly in the race to qualify for the Nations League quarter-finals. The match brought an end to a demanding run of four consecutive games in this long international break, one in which plenty of players got opportunities and minutes. Among the Italy head coach's call-ups, there was huge anticipation around the senior Azzurri debut of one of the youngest and most talked-about talents eligible for Italy: Samuele Inacio.

But across those four matches, the 2008-born forward received just one call-up, for tonight's game against Turkey, and played zero minutes, so the "snatch-preventing" debut never arrived. So what happens now?

  • Mancini’s words

    Previous press conferences had already made one thing clear: Mancini still did not see him as 100 per cent ready, unlike the others who had already made their debuts. The head coach ruled out any change of nationality despite having no guarantee he could give him minutes, stressing that he still needs more game time before he is "ready for Italy".

    "I know that Inacio is a lad who needs to make appearances to be 'ours' and so that he does not think about going somewhere else in another shirt. But I believe he is already... tied down because he has come through all the youth levels with Italy. If we think he can come in and play, that is wrong, because we need to give him time: he is a lad who still has to develop physically as well. But he has important qualities"

  • What happens now?

    In the end, Inacio's chance never came. Vergara's late injury and the tactical reshuffle that sent Scamacca on for Pio Esposito closed the door on the "gift" of a debut, which would also have carried double significance from an "anti-poaching" point of view. Samuele, after all, is the son of Inacio Pia, the former Brazilian striker who played for Napoli and Atalanta among others.

    Without an appearance in an official match, which would have put the brakes on things for the next three years, Brazil could still convince the striker to answer a call-up from the national team managed by Carlo Ancelotti. Mancini spoke of "fidelisation" and the player has always said he dreams of defending Italy's colours, but the possibility of him being poached, at least on paper, remains very real today.

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