Before his move to Leeds United, Wilfried Gnonto might've owed something of a debt to Italy's national team manager Roberto Mancini for helping to put him on the European radar.
Thanks to those performances in the national setup, the 19-year-old has enjoyed a fruitful first season in the Premier League with the Whites following his move at the end of last summer's transfer window.
But now the Italian youngster could get a chance to repay the former Manchester City boss in a big way by leading the Azzurri into their 2024 UEFA EURO Championships Qualifiers campaign later this month.
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"Some?!" Mancini exclaimed when asked if he's had problems in the striker department internationally in an interview with Il Mattino. "The problems up top are serious. Immobile is out, Raspadori maybe too. We have some big questions.
"Almost all centre forwards have played very few minutes in recent months. We don’t have one who has played in the starting lineup.
"Perhaps only Gnonto has played a little more in Leeds and can be a centre-forward, but for the rest, we’re in bad shape: Scamacca is back from an injury. Ciro was hurt, Belotti doesn’t play much."
The next international break is in two weeks time and going off Mancini's words, we could see Gnonto start in both matches against England at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and Malta.
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