Report: Malagò wants Guardiola to lead Italy if elected as FIGC President

Thursday’s reports claim that Pep Guardiola is Giovanni Malagò’s ‘dream’ candidate to become the next head coach of the Italy national team should the former CONI chief be elected as the new FIGC President in June.

Italy are without a head coach nor a head of the football association (FIGC) following the departures of Gennaro Gattuso and Gabriele Gravina in the aftermath of the World Cup play-off defeat against Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of March.

An election to appoint a new FIGC President will take place on June 22, and Malagò and Giancarlo Abete have recently formalised their candidacies. Malagò has the endorsement of the Lega Serie A, Lega Serie B, the players’ association and the coaches’ association and is in a promising position ahead of next month’s election.

A new head coach will not be appointed before a new FIGC leader is in place, but Thursday’s reports claim that Malagò is already eyeing up potential candidates.

It has previously been suggested that Malagò would look to appoint Milan’s Massimiliano Allegri should he be appointed as the next President of the FIGC, but La Repubblica claims that his ‘dream’ candidate would be Manchester City’s Guardiola.

Guardiola has one year remaining on his City contract, and it has been reported that the former Barcelona, Brescia and Roma midfielder is not interested in taking on a new role with another club once his time in the Premier League comes to an end. He could opt to take a sabbatical, but taking on a national team role could be an ideal compromise for the 55-year-old.

Recent reports from La Gazzetta dello Sport claim that Guardiola is ‘open’ to entertaining offers from the Italy set-up.

It remains to be seen, however, whether Guardiola would accept an offer from Italy on what would be a significantly lower salary than the one he currently earns with Manchester City.

Guardiola reportedly earns around €23m (£20m) per season in England. For comparison, Antonio Conte earned a reported €4.1m per season when he was in charge of Italy between 2014 and 2016. Roberto Mancini earned around €3m per season, Luciano Spalletti earned a reported €2.8m, Giampiero Ventura around €1.5m, while Gennaro Gattuso earned €800,000 for his nine-month spell.