Paolo Maldini, the former technical director of the Italian Football Federation, spoke about the negotiations that took place between him and Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola to oversee the technical management of the Italian national team.
Guardiola was linked with coaching the Italian national team during the past period, before the negotiations faltered, and eventually Roberto Mancini returned to the Azzurri again.
The Italian Federation also entered into negotiations with Carlo Ancelotti, and then Andrea Pirlo, before Mancini's return.
Maldini resigned from his position during the past period, after Pirlo was not appointed as the technical director of the Italian national team, and Claudio Ranieri was appointed instead of him.
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Maldini admitted in statements reported by the newspaper "Mundo Deportivo" that Guardiola was about to coach Italy, where he said: "We contacted the best Italian coach in history, who is my dear friend Carlo Ancelotti, Carlo told us that Brazil had renewed their trust in him, and apologized wishing us success, it was a fateful call."
And about Guardiola: "He is the coach who represents technical and attacking football in the best possible way, through communicating with some friends, the idea of contracting with him was proposed, we went to visit him in Barcelona, and we had lunch together, and we talked all day."
He added: "Our offer to Guardiola was very tempting, as he was about to agree, even starting to write the national team's formations on paper, as for the money, the 20 million euros we talked about were never a problem for us."
He concluded: "Pep told us clearly: Give me one euro less than what the previous coach was receiving and I will be happy, but in the end, he rejected the offer because he was exhausted, he spent 10 exhausting years in the English Premier League, underwent back surgery and wanted to get rest, but it was a very serious conversation, where we studied all the lists of the age groups of the Italian national teams, starting from under 17 years."
