The 2016 European Championships will be the last time Italian legend Antonio Conte will head up the men’s national team of his home country. On Tuesday, he announced that he would step down as manager of the Azzurri following the completion of the 2016 European Championships.
The move was confirmed by the head of the Italian football federation, Carlo Tavecchio.
“Antonio Conte has told me that after the European Championship, his experience [as Italy coach] will end,” Tavecchio said, via ANSA. “He wants to get back to the day-to-day coaching, and this is understandable.”
Conte’s announcement is a huge step forward amidst the speculation that Conte is tipped to be the new permanent manager of Chelsea. Speculation has run rampant for the past few weeks after former Juventus, AC Milan, and England manager Fabio Capello made it known that Conte was prepping for the Chelsea job.
Why leave a perfectly good job at the helm of the Azzurri for the tumultuous life of a Chelsea manager?
According to Tavecchio, it is all about being around a team and putting in work on a day-to-day basis. Oh, and the smell of grass apparently.
“I will always be grateful to him for this. Antonio Conte is a man who likes to get things done and he’s missing the day-to-day work [of a club coach], the scent of the grass. This is the most important thing he has told me. It’s not about money, it’s about work. This is what he has told me. He wakes up in the morning and misses the [work on the] field.”
Conte took to Facebook to show his commitment to the Italian team ahead of the Euro’s and his desire to get back to club management.
His last job in club management was with Juventus, leading the club from 2011 to 2014. He won three league titles in his three seasons at Juve.
A move to Chelsea would give Roman Abramovich another high-profile manager for his club after seeing the second Jose Mourinho managerial experiment fail after two and a half seasons.
[ESPN FC]
