Italy head coach Gennaro Gattuso has confirmed that Federico Chiesa turned down an invitation to join the national team for their November fixtures.<\/p>\n
The Azzurri boss explained that Chiesa had previously admitted he wasn\u2019t \u201c100%\u201d during the October international break, adding that the pair have maintained regular communication since then.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old forward hasn\u2019t featured for Italy since his move to Liverpool at the end of the 2024 summer transfer window, with his last appearance coming in the European Championships defeat to Switzerland nearly 18 months ago.<\/p>\n
Gattuso clarifies Chiesa\u2019s Italy omission<\/p>\n
Chiesa\u2019s omission from Italy\u2019s latest squad raised eyebrows when the list was announced on Sunday. Gattuso revealed that he had wanted to call up the Liverpool attacker for their upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Norway.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Mail Sport, the former AC Milan star said:<\/p>\n
> \u201cI often talk to him. We must respect each other\u2019s decisions and personal issues. We both know what\u2019s been discussed, and I have to respect what the player tells me. That\u2019s all I can say.\u201d<\/p>\n
When pressed on whether Chiesa had indeed declined the call-up, Gattuso replied:<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, this is the fourth or fifth time I\u2019ve had to explain it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chiesa\u2019s decision comes as a surprise<\/p>\n
It\u2019s somewhat unexpected that Chiesa opted out of international duty, especially given his limited playing time at Liverpool. Although he\u2019s featured more this season than last, his only two starts have come in the Carabao Cup, and he has logged just 344 minutes of action so far (via Transfermarkt).<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, speculation about his future continues to swirl, with reports in Italy suggesting Napoli are interested in bringing him back to Serie A in the coming months.<\/p>\n
While the reasons behind Chiesa\u2019s refusal remain unclear, it would be unfair to criticise him without knowing the full story. From Liverpool\u2019s point of view, supporters will simply hope he remains fit and focused on performing for the Reds \u2014 contributing goals and energy whenever called upon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Italy head coach Gennaro Gattuso has confirmed that Federico Chiesa turned down an invitation to join the national team for their November fixtures. The Azzurri boss explained that Chiesa had previously admitted he wasn\u2019t \u201c100%\u201d during the October international break, adding that the pair have maintained regular communication since then. The 28-year-old forward hasn\u2019t featured …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":54139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gattuso-chiesa-1200x674.jpg.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54141,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54138\/revisions\/54141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}