Mancini turns to Como and Parma academies as four uncapped players join Italy squad
Roberto Mancini has called up four uncapped players for November's Nations League fixtures against France and Belgium, reflecting a shift toward Serie A's emerging attacking talent.
Roberto Mancini named a 31-player Italy squad on Thursday for Nations League matches against France at San Siro on November 12 and away to Belgium three days later, with four players receiving their first senior call-ups, according to Football Italia.
The group includes 17-year-old Como midfielder Riccardo Cassano, 18-year-old Parma forward Simone Lontani, Milan's leading scorer Alphadjo Cisse and Como teenager Mattia Liberali, who scored his first Champions League goal earlier in the week. Luca Koleosho also returns, having won two caps in June friendlies under interim coach Silvio Baldini, but this marks his first inclusion in a competitive squad.
Italy sit second in their Nations League group on seven points after four matches, behind France on 10 and ahead of Belgium on six, with Turkiye bottom on zero, Football Italia reported.
A regista given a brief audition before returning to his age group
Cassano's inclusion is the most striking element of the list given he has not made a single competitive appearance at club level. He operates in front of the defence, a role built around dictating tempo and breaking up opposition attacks rather than driving forward himself.
That profile, a deep-lying playmaker who screens the back line and recycles possession, explains why Mancini wanted him in camp even without senior minutes to his name. Cassano only moved up to Como's Under-21 group this season and was called into the Under-18s as recently as September, with his only action so far coming in the Primavera league and the UEFA Youth League.
He will train with the senior squad for the opening days of the camp before being released back to the Italy Under-18s, where regular minutes are more likely. The arrangement lets Mancini assess a player he rates highly without disrupting the teenager's actual development path.
Why two forwards offer value beyond goals
Lontani and Cisse arrive as attacking players whose appeal rests heavily on positional range. Lontani, who came through the academies at Cesena and Milan before joining Parma in the summer, has scored five goals in his first 11 senior appearances, three of them in 10 Serie A outings. He has mostly featured as a second striker this season but can also drop into the half-space as a central attacking midfielder or shift out to the left wing.
Cisse offers a similar kind of flexibility at a more advanced stage of his breakthrough. The 20-year-old is Milan's top scorer across all competitions with seven goals in 12 appearances this season, and he can lead the line, play in a supporting role just behind a centre-forward, or operate from the left. Calls for his inclusion had been building since September, Football Italia noted, making this call-up less a surprise than confirmation of form already recognised.
Unlike Lontani, who like Cassano will return to his Under-19 group after the initial days of the camp, Cisse is expected to push for his first senior minutes during this international window.
Liberali's call-up follows a night of transition-heavy chaos
Liberali's selection comes directly off the back of Como's 9-1 win over Lens in the Champions League, in which he scored his first goal at that level. He is not yet a fixture in Cesc Fabregas's starting line-up but has begun to earn minutes off the bench, functioning as an impact substitute rather than an automatic starter.
His overall numbers this season, two goals and two assists in six appearances across all competitions, are modest in volume but three of those four goal involvements came in that single rout of Lens. Liberali and Cisse are already well acquainted, having spent the 2025-26 season together at Catanzaro in Serie B, a shared background that may ease his integration into camp.
What the selections say about Mancini's approach
Taken together, the four call-ups point to a coach willing to test uncapped teenagers against elite opposition rather than wait for them to accumulate senior minutes first. Three of the four, Cassano, Lontani and Liberali, are 19 or younger, and two of them are expected to be released back to youth level once the early days of the camp conclude.
Football Italia reported that Mancini's squad also involved eight new additions in total and 11 players dropped from the previous call-up, underlining a broader reshuffle beyond just the uncapped quartet.
Italy's immediate task is converting squad depth into results. A win over France at San Siro would move them level on points at the top of the group before the trip to Belgium three days later decides how the section stands heading into the remaining fixtures.