Roberto Mancini, the former Manchester City manager, has been confirmed as the new head coach of Italy. He succeeds Gian Piero Ventura, who was sacked in November after Italy missed out on the World Cup for the first time since 1958.

The 53-year-old will begin the job in the unlikely setting of a friendly against Saudi Arabia in Switzerland on 28 May and one of his first decisions will be whether to recall Mario Balotelli, whom he often clashed with when the pair were at City. Balotelli has not been called up by Italy since the 2014 World Cup.

Mancini won a surprisingly modest 36 caps for Italy and never played at a World Cup, although he was an unused member of the 1990 squad.

He began his coaching career with Fiorentina in 2001 and won the Coppa Italia in his first season even though the club was plagued by financial problems.

He then moved to Lazio but had his biggest success at Internazionale, where he won three successive Serie A titles. That was followed by a stint at City, where he won the 2012 Premier League title and the FA Cup in a four-season spell.

Since then Mancini has coached at Galatasaray, had another spell at Inter and a season at Zenit.