Jorginho, Emerson included in 26-man Italy national team call-up

Italy’s failure to earn a spot in last year’s World Cup, in what can be described as a tragicomedy, still hurts the Azzurri. The team under former Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini are still reshaping themselves after such an event, with a generational shift taking place at the same time.

Both Emerson and Jorginho, Chelsea players born in Brazil that acquired Italian citizenship and the right to play for the latter’s national team, were already being relied upon by the previous boss, Gian Piero Ventura. And such a trend continues under Mancini, who called them to join the four-time World Cup champions for their European Championship qualifying matches against Armenia and Finland on September 5 and 8, respectively.

This can be seen as a continuation of their good work at club level with the Blues. Emerson has been one of our best players on the pitch in Frank Lampard’s first steps as Chelsea boss. And Jorginho is not that far behind him, being present in all four of our starting lineups thus far this term.

The full 26-man Italy national team squad is as follows:

GOALKEEPERS: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan), Pierluigi Gollini (Atalanta), Alex Meret (Napoli), Salvatore Sirigu (Torino);

DEFENDERS: Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Francesco Acerbi (Lazio), Mattia De Sciglio (Juventus), Emerson Palmieri (Chelsea), Alessandro Florenzi (Roma), Armando Izzo (Torino), Gianluca Mancini (Roma), Luca Pellegrini (Cagliari), Alessio Romagnoli (Milan);

MIDFIELDERS: Nicolo Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Jorginho (Chelsea), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Stefano Sensi (Inter), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain);

FORWARDS: Andrea Belotti (Torino), Federico Bernardeschi (Juventus), Federico Chiesa (Fiorentina), Stephan El Shaarawy (Shanghai Shenhua), Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli), Kevin Lasagna (Udinese).