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ROME -- The Italian football federation has talked to Roberto Mancini about the possibility of becoming the next coach of the national team. 53-year-old Mancini, who has coached Manchester City and Inter Milan, is among several candidates for the role -- along with current Chelsea coach Antonio Conte, Carlo Ancelotti and Claudio Ranieri. Mancini won three straight Serie A titles with Inter and led City to the Premier League championship in 2012. He's also won the FA Cup with City, the Turkish Cup with Galatasaray and the Italian Cup four times while in charge of Inter, Lazio and Fiorentina. Roberto Fabbricini, the federation's new emergency leader, said on Friday that "the first phone calls have begun" and that they are "profiting from the fact that Mancini is in Rome so we were able to speak to him already last night." "I don't think we will have a new permanent coach for the upcoming friendlies against Argentina and England," he added. "Therefore we will contact the under-21 Italy coach Luigi Di Biagio as a temporary solution. Only after I will be able to assess the situation with greater accuracy." The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), which oversees all sports in Italy, named its secretary general as emergency leader on Thursday and appointed former Italy and AC Milan defender Alessandro Costacurta and Angelo Clarizia as vice-commissioners. Already in crisis following Italy's failure to qualify for the World Cup, the emergency measures were imposed on the FIGC after four failed votes to elect a new president on Monday. The election was called after Carlo Tavecchio resigned in November following Italy's playoff loss to Sweden which kept the four-time champion out of the World Cup for the first time in six decades. It also meant the end for coach Gian Piero Ventura, who was fired two days after the defeat.
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