Roberto Mancini is set to return as Italy’s national team coach, completing one of the more dramatic boomerang moves in international football management. The Italian tactician has agreed to take the job, marking a reunion with the Azzurri that few predicted when he walked away from the role three years ago.

From Al Sadd to the Azzurri

Mancini signed with Qatari club Al Sadd on November 13, 2025, inking a deal that was supposed to run through June 30, 2028. That contract lasted, generously, about seven months before his next move materialized.

This is a pattern. Mancini managed Saudi Arabia’s national team from August 2023 to October 2024, a stint that lasted roughly 14 months. Before that, he helmed Italy from 2018 to 2023, a period that included the high-water mark of his international career: winning UEFA Euro 2020.

That Euro triumph, achieved in the summer of 2021 (the tournament was delayed a year due to COVID), cemented Mancini’s legacy as one of Italy’s most successful modern coaches. The Azzurri beat England on penalties at Wembley.

Then he left. Abruptly. Took the Saudi Arabia job for what was widely understood to be a significant financial package. The move puzzled Italian football fans who had watched him rebuild a team that failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup into European champions.

The contract question

Here’s the thing about Mancini’s Al Sadd departure. He had more than two years remaining on his contract. In football, breaking a deal like that typically involves either a mutual termination with a financial settlement or a buyout clause being triggered.

Mancini has now left three consecutive jobs before his contract expired: Italy in 2023, Saudi Arabia in 2024, and Al Sadd in 2026.

What this means for the football landscape

Mancini’s managerial CV is genuinely impressive beyond the Euro 2020 win. His club career includes titles with Inter Milan and Manchester City, where he delivered the English club’s first league championship in 44 years back in 2012.