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LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 27: Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City, acknowledges the fans after the team’s victory during the Emirates FA Cup Semi Final match between Nottingham Forest and Manchester City at Wembley Stadium on April 27, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Gianluigi Donnarumma says that he has had a ‘great time’ working under Pep Guardiola in 2025-26, but says that he hasn’t made any attempts to convince the legendary tactician to take over the vacant Italy national team job yet: ‘Those choices aren’t up to me’.
Donnarumma discusses Guardiola links to vacant Italy job
Italy are without a permanent head coach following the departure of Gennaro Gattuso earlier this year and a replacement will not be appointed before the FIGC Presidential elections take place on June 22.
For now, Italy are being led by U21 coach Silvio Baldini on an interim basis. He will lead the Azzurri into a series of international friendlies against Luxembourg on June 3 and against Greece on June 7 and has named a squad that is largely made up of players he knows well from the youth set-up.
Of the 24 players called up to the Italy squad, only Donnarumma, Marco Palestra, Niccolo Pisilli and Pio Esposito have been previously capped at senior level.
Donnarumma had his opportunity to speak to the media during his press conference on Friday and among the topics of discussion was the appointment of a new, permanent CT.
Antonio Conte is still among the frontrunners, but there have been suggestions that the ‘dream’ candidate is Guardiola, who Donnarumma signed for at the start of the 2025-26 season.
“I had a great time with the coach, he made history at City and I’d hoped he would continue,” said Donnarumma.
“But his desire was to stop. I haven’t talked to him about the possibility of coaching Italy, those choices aren’t up to me, but the new President.
“Surely whoever comes in will have to give everything for the Azzurri shirt and to achieve our goals.”
Click here to read Donnarumma’s press conference in full.
ByPeter Young
Peter Young is a Senior Reporter with Football Italia.
