Agent Suggests Immobile ‘Mistreated’ After Azzurri Snub

Marco Sommella, the agent of Lazio talisman Ciro Immobile, expressed his frustration after the 32-year-old failed to receive a call-up to Roberto Mancini’s Italy squad.

The 33-year-old Italian striker was forced to miss the Biancocelesti’s last four games across all competitions with a muscle injury, but had started to recover heading into the international break.

Immobile was not called up to join Mancini’s 30-man squad for Italy’s upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers against England and Malta, but Argentine-born striker Mateo Retegui was, prompting some confusion amongst supporters.

Speaking at the Palermo Football Conference (via TMW), agent Sommella discussed Immobile’s exclusion from the Italy national team for their first Euro 2024 qualifiers.

The only thing he has always done is score goals. Here we have Perinetti and Capozucca, two directors who launched him. The guy has been mistreated, we had to keep him in a bell jar because we don’t have the Lewandowskis, the Mbappes and so on.

Ciro also has his faults but if we don’t have Italian Vlahovic, and Retegui will play, something is wrong. Immobile has won the European Championship with the national team, the Golden Boot, four times as capocannoniere.

I always tell him that he will regret it when he has stopped. Italian football is not in good shape, I hope then that Retegui is a Batistuta, but there is a problem.

The level of Argentinean football is not the same as a few years ago. Many people speak highly of little Esposito, born in 2005, but you have to have the courage to put him in Dzeko’s place. If he played for Dortmund or Leipzig, he would be a starter.

Whilst Immobile has consistently looked to be a dangerous striker for Lazio, he’s failed to transmit this for the Azzurri, scoring just 15 goals across 55 caps for his national team. The striker was widely criticised for Italy’s failures to qualify for the last two World Cups.

Tags Azzurri Biancocelesti Ciro Immobile immobile Italy Lazio Rome Serie A