Italian FA (FIGC) president Carlo Tavecchio says he can see Maurizio Sarri being a future Italy manager after the Napoli coach was named winner of the Premio Enzo Bearzot as Italy's coach of the year for 2017.
Sarri will pick up his prize on May 30, following in the footsteps of Claudio Ranieri, who won last year's award for guiding Leicester City to the Premier League title, and Massimiliano Allegri, who picked up the award in 2015.
It is the first major accolade Sarri has won, but Tavecchio believes more are destined to follow for a coach who has worked his way up the ranks from amateur football to become one of Italy's top coaches.
"At the moment, we are very busy focusing on qualifying for the World Cup and I've never considered alternatives to [Giampiero] Ventura, but opportunities arise for everybody in life and I would hope that Sarri gets this opportunity [to coach Italy]," Il Corriere dello Sport reports Tavecchio as saying at the news conference to announce Sarri as the 2017 winner.
"He reminds me of [Arrigo] Sacchi for his innovation and [Helenio] Herrara, who was tough and rigorous, for his human qualities. Sarri came through the amateur ranks and this is an important point for those who, like myself, come from that world. He can justifiably hope of winning the league."
In announcing Sarri as the 2017 winner, the FIGC jury praised the way Sarri's Napoli play.
"Dostoyevsky wrote that beauty will save the world, and who knows if Maurizio Sarri, a well-read man as well as a great coach, has taken his inspiration from these words during a career which, from the provincial outposts to the Champions League, has had one common denominator which is the beautiful football his teams have always played," the body wrote.
"Enzo Bearzot, despite not being a beautician, fielded the most spectacular national team in the history of the Squadra Azzurra at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. That project became successful four years later when this beauty was combined with the pragmatism which led to glory in Spain '82.
"Maurizio Sarri also shares in common with [Bearzot] the capability of creating extraordinary cohesion in the group of players he is coaching; players who have shown they always want to give the absolute maximum for him, thanks to a coach whose work ethic had always brought the best out of and improved individuals, all the while fitting them into the superior concept of a team.
"He is a master capable of writing an original score which is all the while recognisable to all those who love beauty, even in football."
Napoli finished second behind Juventus in Sarri's first season in charge last year, although they currently trail second-placed Roma by four points with five games of the Serie A season to go.