Lippi: ‘Belotti should be Italy’s striker’

By Football Italia staff

Marcello Lippi believes Italy “have found their striker for the present and the future” in the form of Andrea Belotti.

The Torino forward has three goals in his first four Azzurri caps, and has already scored eight goals in Serie A this season.

“The feeling is that they’re building something important,” Lippi told Corriere dello Sport when asked about Giampiero Ventura’s Italy.

“The story of targeted training camps is positive, even more so this wave of young people in Azzurro.

“Giampiero has an advantage over others in that respect, in that there’s this wave of interesting young players, and moreover they’re playing.

“I think [Alessio] Romagnoli has grown a lot, and Belotti… he’s really strong. I would say the national team has found its striker for the present and the future.”

Lippi was supposed to take on an advisory role as technical director, but rules about conflicts of interest meant he couldn’t, as his son Davide is an agent.

“We [Lippi and Ventura] were together for almost two months last spring. We saw a lot, we talked a lot and we were really looking forward to a collaboration, with no trespassing.

“We know each other from our time shared in the Sampdoria Primavera, he knew he could rely on me and I made my experience available, without interfering.

“A beautiful collaboration between two friends who were tacking the same task was growing. Then what happened, happened.”

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