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Tom Hamilton, Senior Writer
Cologne, Germany — Italy Manager Luciano Spalletti has insisted he has not banned his team from playing video games while at Euro 2024 and said he has been testing the team’s PlayStation at their training base.
Spalletti has criticized in the past that some members of his team played video games late into the night. In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport in February, he said players should “leave the PlayStation at home” when they arrive at camp to aim for success in “Europe, not winning at Call of Duty.”
In March, he told reporters that he believed a player had not slept before their key qualifying match against Ukraine as they had been playing on their PlayStation.
This question was raised again on the eve of Italy’s opening match at Euro 2024 against Albania in Dortmund on Saturday, and Spalletti was quick to clarify reports that he had banned the team from playing video games.
“Sometimes I feel very sad and disappointed to come here and comment on things I haven’t said. I don’t care what they do, but I don’t let them stay up all night.” Spalletti said at a news conference Friday.
“I have nothing against any type of game: we have created a games room where there are two PlayStations. Everyone goes there, I have tried it myself.”
“But they can do it… at the right time of day. I don’t think it’s acceptable for them to be up until 3 or 4 in the morning, you have to sleep at night. We need to impart a correct lifestyle during games. No “It’s not fair or true that I said we can’t play PlayStation, we can’t stay up until 3 or 4 in the morning, that’s different.”
captain of italy Gianluigi Donnarumma He also said that reports of an outright ban on PlayStations had been exaggerated. “It’s important to make sure you don’t go to bed too late; you have to rest and train,” Donnarumma said.
“After dinner we spent time together in the games room, we let off some steam and a nice team spirit was created. We laughed, we spent a few hours together.
“There is no problem about it, the coach gave us some instructions and advice, but there are no strict rules in any case.”
Spalletti calls himself optimistic Nicolò Barella will be able to play against Albania, with the Inter de Milan midfielder recovering from a groin injury.
“Yesterday he did the whole training session and today we have another training session, a kind of training game,” Spalletti said. “Everything until yesterday afternoon made us believe that he was available to be selected.”
Spalletti also refused to confirm whether Italy will play with a back three or four against Albania.
There are also questions about who he will go with up front, with Spalletti weighing the possibility of two starting forwards. But he praised Atalanta‘s Gianluca Scamacca as a “complete forward”, who “has it all”.
Defending champions Italy find themselves in a tough group alongside Croatia and Spain and they are wary of the threat posed by Albania.
Albania, managed by formerArsenal and Barcelona defender Sylvinho, they have a team full of players based in A league and you will know your opposition well.
“It’s definitely the biggest banana skin,” Donnarumma said of Albania. “We are in a difficult group and there are many problems with tomorrow night’s game. We need to be on fire, they have a lot of rhythm in the team and play good football.
“Tomorrow night we cannot play at 70 or 80%, we have to be at 100%. We will go game by game. Tomorrow night’s game will be very important when it comes to scoring points.”