Atalanta and Inter supply the most players to Roberto Mancini’s first Italy squad of his second spell. Atalanta send four, Inter three after Federico Dimarco withdrew injured, and Roma, Como, Bologna, Cagliari and Napoli two each. Of the 34 players Mancini called up, 24 play in Serie A and 10 abroad. Six Serie A clubs send nobody, and the biggest name among them is Milan.
I like doing this count before every international window. It tells you which clubs are trusting Italian players with real minutes, and this week the answer does not match the league table.
How is the squad split club by club?
FIGC named the 34 players on 18 September 2026, and the group met at Coverciano on 21 September. Two changes followed. Samuele Ricci of Como replaced Bryan Cristante of Roma, and Matteo Ruggeri of Aston Villa replaced Dimarco. That leaves Atalanta with four players: Marco Carnesecchi, Giorgio Scalvini, Giacomo Raspadori and Gianluca Scamacca. Inter have Alessandro Bastoni, Nicolò Barella and Francesco Pio Esposito.
Roma send Gianluca Mancini and the uncapped Daniele Ghilardi. Como have Moise Kean, who joined from Fiorentina on 1 September, and Ricci. Bologna have Nicolò Cambiaghi and the 18-year-old goalkeeper Massimo Pessina. Cagliari have Daniel Maldini and Alessandro Romano. Napoli have Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Antonio Vergara.
Seven clubs send one each. Juventus have Guglielmo Vicario, signed from Tottenham in August, with Manuel Locatelli out injured. Lazio have Davide Frattesi, Fiorentina Nicolò Fagioli, Torino Rolando Mandragora, Sassuolo Sebastiano Esposito, Udinese Nicolò Zaniolo and Monza Eddy Kouadio.
Why does Atalanta’s number stand out?
Atalanta have more players in this squad than anyone, and they are 11th in Serie A with six points from five games. They have lost three in a row, to Roma, Cagliari and Juventus, and on WhoScored’s numbers they have created the fewest expected goals in the league, 4.09. I read that two ways. Mancini is picking players with international pedigree, and Scalvini, Raspadori and Scamacca have plenty of it. And Maurizio Sarri’s Atalanta are a long way from the Atalanta that ran Serie A with Inter, which makes this a squad built on reputation as much as on form.
Why do Cagliari have two players and Milan none?
Cagliari are fourth with 12 points, and both of their players arrive in form. Maldini has scored three of Cagliari’s five league goals, and Romano scored the only goal at Parma on 22 August. I worked Atalanta v Cagliari for ONE on 12 September, a 2-1 win for Cagliari in Bergamo, and they looked like a team that knows exactly what it is. That is a club giving young Italians the pitch, and the national team is collecting the reward.
Milan are fifth with 11 points and have no one in the squad. Neither do Genoa, Lecce, Parma or the promoted pair Venezia and Frosinone. Frosinone are sixth, so the pattern runs through the whole table. It comes down to which squads are built around Italian players, and Milan’s regular starters today come from elsewhere.
What does the squad say about the leaders?
The top three in Serie A, Roma, Inter and Lazio, all sit on 13 points, and Roma lead on the underlying numbers. Between them they send six players, and one of those, Ghilardi, is new to the squad. Lazio send only Frattesi, who has three league goals from midfield. The national team’s main suppliers sit lower in the table, and that gap is worth watching all season.
Who are the new faces?
FIGC counts nine first-time call-ups. From Serie A they are Ghilardi, Vergara, Romano, Pessina, Kouadio and Sebastiano Esposito. From abroad come Michael Kayode of Brentford, Issa Doumbia of Sporting CP and Mohamed Alì Zoma of Nürnberg. Several of the Serie A names feature in our list of Serie A’s best young players. Fagioli and Zaniolo return for the first time since October 2024, and Mandragora for the first time since March 2021.
Ten players come from abroad, including Gianluigi Donnarumma, Riccardo Calafiori and Sandro Tonali. That is the other half of the story. Some of Italy’s most important players built their careers in Serie A and now play in England.
What should we watch this week?
Italy open against Belgium at the Stadio Olimpico on Friday 25 September, then play Türkiye in Bursa on 28 September, France at the Stade de France on 2 October and Türkiye again at the Dall’Ara in Bologna on 5 October. After that, Serie A returns on 10 October.
My view is simple. The clubs that give Italians real minutes will fill this squad, whatever their position in the table. Cagliari are doing it. Milan are not. Over a season, that shows up in the national team before it shows up anywhere else.
