Italy's Youngest Ever Squad Under Roberto Mancini
Roberto Mancini has ripped up Italy’s old age profile and started again.
His latest selection for the November Nations League dates with France and Belgium is officially the youngest Italy squad of all time – and that’s before you even count the two teenagers who won’t actually feature.
A record broken before the kids even play
Mancini named 31 players for the double-header, a list that turned heads the moment it dropped. Buried inside it were two of the most eye-catching call-ups of his reign: 17-year-old Riccardo Cassano and 18-year-old Simone Lontani.
Cassano has not yet played a single competitive minute at club level. Lontani is only just emerging. Yet both have been invited into the senior camp, a clear signal of where Mancini wants to take this team.
They will train with the group for a few days, taste the rhythm of the senior set-up, then step back down to the U18s and U19s, where they are expected to get their game time during the break. It is a cameo, not a coronation.
And here is the striking part: even when you remove Cassano and Lontani from the calculation, the remaining 29 players still form the youngest Italy squad ever assembled, with an average age of 24 years and 171 days.
This is not a token gesture. It is a reset.
Teenagers at the heart of the project
The two headline youngsters are not alone. Mancini has laced his squad with fresh legs and unscarred minds.
- Honest Ahanor, 18, already learning his trade in the Premier League with Crystal Palace.
- Matteo Palma, also 18, on Udinese’s books.
- Mattia Liberali, 19, another teenager pushing at the door.
All part of a senior Italy squad. All handed responsibility early.
Just above them, a clutch of early‑twentysomethings underline the generational shift. Alphadjo Cisse, 20, making noise with AC Milan. Pio Esposito and Marco Palestra, both 21, representing Inter’s and Chelsea’s production lines. They are no longer prospects from afar; they are in the room.
The image is clear: Italy are no longer leaning on a veteran spine. They are building a new one in real time.
Veterans in short supply
Look at the other end of the age scale and the contrast is stark.
At 30, Guglielmo Vicario stands as the oldest player in the entire squad. A goalkeeper as the senior figure tells its own story. Nicolò Barella, 29, is next in line, followed by Federico Gatti and Federico Dimarco, both 28.
This is not a group padded with thirty-somethings clinging on. It is a dressing room where a 29-year-old midfielder is already part of the old guard.
The squad that will face France and Belgium
The Nations League fixtures – France on Thursday, Belgium on Sunday evening – will test how quickly this new Italy can grow up. The names underline just how deep Mancini has gone with his overhaul.
- Goalkeepers: Marco Carnesecchi (Atalanta), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Manchester City), Guglielmo Vicario (Juventus)
- Defenders: Honest Ahanor (Crystal Palace), Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal), Federico Dimarco (Inter), Federico Gatti (Juventus), Daniele Ghilardi (Roma), Michael Kayode (Brentford), Marco Palestra (Chelsea), Matteo Palma (Udinese), Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta)
- Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Riccardo Cassano (Como), Issa Doumbia (Sporting CP), Nicolò Fagioli (Fiorentina), Davide Frattesi (Lazio), Simone Lontani (Parma), Niccolò Pisilli (Roma), Samuele Ricci (Como), Alessandro Romano (Cagliari), Sandro Tonali (Tottenham)
From Bologna to the biggest stages of the Nations League, Italy will line up with faces that, until recently, belonged to youth-team lists and academy reports. Mancini has chosen to trust them now.
The question is no longer whether Italy are rebuilding. It is how quickly this bold, youngest-ever Azzurri can turn raw potential into results against Europe’s elite.
