To get off on the right foot after months of hiatus, the Italian team can count on the surprise guest Francesco Caputo, a hardworking striker unaccustomed to lights, whose very simple message - "Everything will be fine" - had comforted the Italy during confinement.
At 33, and barely more than two seasons in Serie A, the one who has long dragged the image of a scorer especially suited for the 2nd division is invited for the first time to the Azzurri, alongside the Bonucci, Chiellini, Immobile, Zaniolo or Insigne, to challenge Bosnia-Herzegovina this Friday (8:45 p.m.) in the League of Nations.
A reward for him after a full season with Sassuolo (21 goals), but also a message for all: more than the prize list or the badge embroidered on the jersey, work is a value that counts for coach Roberto Mancini on the road of Euro 2020 postponed for a year, where Italy will be among the favorites.
This value, "Ciccio" Caputo embodies for sure.
This son of a mason, born in the south of Italy (Puglia), almost dropped young football before turning professional.
Marked by Antonio Conte, who was his trainer in Bari and Siena, he surveyed the Italian 2nd division for almost ten years.
Serie A, he had known it only six months with Bari in 2010 before finding it, and winning there with Empoli and Sassuolo the last two seasons.
In Italy, he also became a little more than a football player last March, during the Sassuolo-Brescia match, the last played before the interruption of competitions due to galloping coronavirus.
After a goal, he goes to a camera and shows a sheet: “Andrà tutto bene.
Restate a casa. "
(everything will be fine, stay home)
"This summons is a sign, you have to believe in your dreams"
Francesco Caputo
This slogan will punctuate the life of Italians during confinement, hammered out by the authorities and taken up by an entire country, from the windows as on social networks.
During this difficult period for Italy, "there were a lot of positive messages from the world of football, from this point of view it's quite encouraging," Italian sociologist and blogger Pippo Russo told AFP.
"Football gave the feeling of taking on a social responsibility, which was not always the case."
"Since this message, on a personal level everything has been fine," Francesco Caputo admitted this week to the press who, during confinement, was also involved in raising funds for the medical world.
“This summons is a sign, you have to believe in your dreams,” he added in Florence, where the Italian team is gathered.
He does not take offense to his reputation as a provincial player, not to say second rank: “It's a label that I've worn for a long time, but that doesn't bother me, on the contrary, it gives strength to move forward.
I'm proud of my career, ”says the man who, to celebrate his goals, mimics drinking a mug of beer to remind people that he is also a partner in a brewery in his native region.
In an enlarged selection of 37 players, it is obviously not certain to know his first selection, against Bosnia on Friday or the Netherlands on Monday, in the League of Nations.
But its post-containment efficiency and its ability to blend into a collective make it a real option in this period of recovery, where the players are in very diverse states of form.
Currently, "there are not many attackers stronger than him," assured Sky Sport Roberto De Zerbi, coach of Sassuolo (8th in Serie A).
"If a player convinces with his technical qualities, it ultimately does not matter whether he has little experience in Serie A or whether he is already old", confirms Pippo Russo, for whom "Mancini does not look not the pedigree but what a player can bring to the Nazionale. "
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