Surprise Call-ups from Lippi this weekend?

By: Francesco | August 14th, 2008

This Saturday the second coming of Lippi happens. The cigar smoking, Paul Newman look-a-like will make his call-ups for the August 20th friendly vs. Austria in Nice (why are we playing vs. Austria in France?). Lippi has said that he will call players that are most in-form from pre-season training, and he has already hinted that there will be some new faces. He already confirmed that new Liverpool signing Andrea Dossena will be there. Dossena already made one appearance with the Azzurri under Donadoni in that friendly vs. South Africa, and he was easily, along with Juan Vargas, the best left-back in Serie A last season.

Also, Angelo Peruzzi, now a member of Lippi’s staff, was at Napoli’s recent friendly with Frosinone and Napoli director Pierpaolo Marino had a little chat with Peruzzi, saying that Lippi is keeping an eye on Manuele Blasi (a frequent call-up by Lippi under his last tenure), Fabiano Santacroce, and Christian Maggio. However Lippi also said in a recent interview that Maggio’s position doesn’t exist in his tactical plans, and for Maggio to be a national team regular he would have to play right-back, so we’ll have to see if Lippi calls him up.

Tuttomercatoweb just revealed today that according to insider sources, Lippi may also call-up Palermo’s center-back Cesare Bovo, Udinese midfielder Gaetano D’Agostino, and Inter striker Mario Balotelli. Bovo has long been a promising player, he was good at Roma and is a very good free kick taker. Last season he did very well at Genoa and has been good for Palermo in the preseason. Gaetano D’Agostino is another player who was very promising as a youngster (he was a U-21 standout) but never lived up to his potential (mainly because Capello never really gave him a chance at Roma, and then he did fairly well as a fantasista at Messina). However last season Udinese manager Pasquale Marino had the intuition to move D’Agostino back to a regista role right in front of the defense to make use of D’Agostino’s excellent passing ability. It worked, as D’Agostino was one of the top central midfielders in Italy last season and provided countless assists for the likes of Di Natale and Quagliarella. He could be a good sub for Pirlo on the Nazionale. And then we come to Mario Balotelli. Balotelli, up until yesterday, was not available for selection by any Italian national team because of his whole citizenship problem. However yesterday Balotelli received his Italian citizenship at a ceremony in his hometown near Brescia. So now the 18 year old wonderkid can be selected by the Azzurri, and here’s why I think Lippi will call him up:

1) Lippi has praised Balotelli in past interviews
2) Lippi said in recent interviews that he wants to call players that are in-form and have played lots of games in the pre-season. He also hinted he would bring some young players. Balotelli fits all that criteria.
3) Lippi said he talked with Spalletti, Ranieri, and Mourinho about calling up players. Now Spalletti and Ranieri I understand, but Mourinho? Inter has 4 Italians- Francesco Toldo, Marco Materazzi, Francesco Bolzoni, and Mario Balotelli. Toldo is retired from international duty, Materazzi is injured, I’ll bet my house that Bolzoni isn’t called up, and that leaves Balotelli.

So we’ll have to see. Also he could call-up just to cap him so Ghana can’t pressure him anymore.

Lippi made his rounds this week, as on Tuesday he made the trip to Florence to watch Fiorentina, and then on Wednesday in the afternoon he watched the first half of Sampdoria’s friendly vs. Carrarese (most probably for Cassano and Palombo) and then went to see his beloved Juve demolish Artmedia in Torino. (and his friend Alex Del Piero scored a stunning goal)

So we’ll have to see what Lippi does on Saturday.

On a related note, it’s currently Ferragosto in Italy, the time where whole cities go on vacation and everybody heads south to the beach. So the news is a little on the slow side, but it should pick up after the weekend.