Rome, June 25 (DPA) The Italian football federation has scheduled for Thursday the official appointment of Cesare Prandelli as coach of the national team, ANSA news agency reported Friday.
Prandelli, 52, signed a four-year contract on May 30, and was to take over from 2006 world champion Marcello Lippi after the return of the national team from the World Cup in South Africa.
However, no one had foreseen Italy’s shock elimination in the group phase Thursday after a 3-2 defeat against Slovakia. The result brought forward Prandelli’s start on the job by a few days.
The former Fiorentina coach was reportedly in Zanzibar with his two sons when Italy on June 20 drew 1-1 their second game with New Zealand. They inaugurated a nursery school dedicated to his late
wife, who died in 2007, there.
