The Defending Champions

The 2006 winners Italy have announced their 30 man preliminary squad that will attempt to defend the trophy at the World Cup in South Africa this summer. Manager Marcello Lippi chose to leave out Roma legend Francesco Totti, after rumours had been suggesting that he was ready to come out of International retirement for the first ever World Cup to be held in Africa.

Luca Toni has also been overlooked as Lippi chose to go for youth over experience with the inclusion of Villarreal and former Manchester United forward Giuseppi Rossi, who surprisingly is the only player to be selected from outside the Italian leagues. If Rossi makes the final 23, which must be announced before the 1st June, he will join Alberto Gilardino who was Italy's top scorer during qualifying with 4 goals.

Italy have been drawn into group F which appears to be fairly straight forward containing Slovakia, New Zealand, who have not qualified for the World Cup finals since 1982 and Paraguay. The Paraguayans, however, will prove to be a real test having finished third in a South American qualifying group containing both Brazil and Argentina. However the Italians will be confident having also finished top of their qualifying group, remaining unbeaten in the process, securing their position as the nation that has played the most World Cup football in history.


ONE TO WATCH

The big player to watch for Italy this year will be Daniele De Rossi, who is nicknamed "Capitan Futuro" by the Italian media who believe he will take over the captaincy of both Roma, from Francesco Totti, and Italy from Fabio Cannavaro, who will be skippering the side in South Africa

His ball winning skill is evident and crucial in allowing the flair players around him like A.C Milan veteran Andrea Pirlo to flourish, even if it does result in him picking up a yellow card...or two as he was in fact sent off 4 years ago in Germany for an elbow against the USA.

Despite his defensive attributes, De Rossi is equally capable of playing an attacking role, and in fact he is coming into the tournament on the back of his best ever goal scoring season, netting 10 goals for Roma this season, helping his side recapture Champions League football for next year. He found the back of the net twice during qualifying and manager Marcello Lippi believes he can do the same when they kick off against Paraguay in Cape Town on June 14th. "Daniele is already one of the most complete midfielders in the world. He is not inferior to either Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard of England" It is now time for De Rossi to live up the hype his manager is creating and prove himself as one of the best midfielders in the world.

ITALY 30 MAN PRELIMINARY SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Morgan De Sanctis (Napoli), Federico Marchetti (Cagliari), Salvatore Sirigu (Palermo)

Defenders: Salvatore Bocchetti (Genoa), Leonardo Bonucci (Bari), Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus), Mattia Cassani (Palermo), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Domenico Criscito (Genoa), Fabio Grosso (Juventus), Christian Maggio (Napoli), Gianluca Zambrotta (AC Milan

Midfielders: Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Antonio Candreva (Juventus), Andrea Cossu (Cagliari), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan), Claudio Marchisio (Juventus), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Angelo Palombo (Sampdoria), Simone Pepe (Udinese), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan)

Strikers: Marco Borriello (AC Milan), Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Juventus), Giampaolo Pazzini (Sampdoria), Fabio Quagliarella (Napoli), Giuseppe Rossi (Villarreal)

Paul Seed