Spanish coach Pep Guardiola has refused to lead the Italian national football team, after conversations held with him by Paolo Maldini, technical director of the Italian Football Federation, in Barcelona, according to a source familiar with the conversations. Giovanni Malagò, president of the Italian federation, had shown financial flexibility to hire a coach of Guardiola's stature, who ended his association last season with Manchester City, after ten years full of achievements, including six Premier League titles, four of them consecutive in an unprecedented achievement, along with three FA Cups, five League Cups, and a single Champions League title. Italy has been looking for a new coach since Gennaro Gattuso resigned last April, after the four-time world champion failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third consecutive time. Maldini had said on Thursday that the federation had sounded out Carlo Ancelotti, Brazil's coach, before holding talks with Guardiola. Italian football is facing one of its deepest crises in decades, following early group exits from European club competitions and failure last season to qualify for the World Cup in North America. Appointing a new coach for the Italian national team is seen as the first step in a larger project to rebuild the youth and talent development system, which has deteriorated significantly in a country that still sees football as a national obsession. With Guardiola's refusal and exit from the race, attention turns to other candidates. Italian media reports indicated that Andrea Pirlo, the former midfielder, is one of the candidates for the position, while the name of Roberto Mancini, who led the team to win Euro 2021, has also been mentioned among possible candidates.