After a disappointing Olympic journey in Rio, the Italian squad is reforming and are now bringing in new and young players to prepare for the new quad which includes some major tourneys like the European Championship next year.
Italy has yet to qualify and has started training for the qualification tourney later this month, Sept. 15th-18th.
In this article released by news.superscommesse.it, the current acting coach of the team, Cristiano Lucchi, reveals Diouf has declined the invitation to represent Italy again.
“I had a long talk with Valentina after what happened before Rio (Olympics). She told me that at this time she decided to have a break from the national team. She did not want to come back for a third time after getting excluded from the Olympic Qualification Tourney in Tokyo and the Olympics. She also apologized to me after I had given her time to think. Now she has to go back to work and start to play. It’s not on me to evaluate the situation.” -Lucchi.
We wonder how much time she needs to heal from her pain. It takes time for some people & sometimes it may take forever. We just hope it won’t be too late before she decides to wear that blue jersey again. She’s young & fragile. We just have to wait and see for now.
In other news, the Bosetti sisters, Lucia and Caterina, are training with the team again. That’s great!
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