Totti to miss upcoming qualifiers

FLORENCE, Italy (AP) -- Injured striker Francesco Totti won't play for Italy in either of its two upcoming European Championship qualifiers, the player's AS Roma club said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, debate about whether several of the country's top strikers, including Totti, were purposely trying to avoid playing for the Azzurri was growing.

Totti was furious after national team coach Giovanni Trapattoni included him in the roster announced Monday for Italy's upcoming matches against Yugoslavia (Saturday) and Wales (Oct. 16).

The AS Roma captain, an integral member of Trapattoni's lineup at the World Cup, had already announced that he was suffering from knee and calf injuries and would be unavailable to play.

"I need to stop for a week and won't be able to recuperate in time for the game with Wales," Totti was quoted as saying in Tuesday's Gazzetta dello Sport. "I can't risk it. I must also respect my club."

On Saturday, Totti scored twice and played all 90 minutes as Roma defeated Udinese 4-1. After the game, he said he scored his second goal by transforming his pain into an angry shot on goal.

"If Francesco remains with the [national] team, Trapattoni will assume full responsibility," Franco Sensi, Roma's president, was quoted as saying by Gazzetta.

Nonetheless, an obviously unhappy Totti traveled to Italy's training facility in Florence on Tuesday, accompanied by Roma doctor Mario Brozzi.

Brozzi had already confirmed Totti's injuries in a medical visit Tuesday morning, and they were confirmed again after a short meeting with national team doctor Andrea Ferretti later, Roma said in a statement.

Both doctors agreed he shouldn't play against either Yugoslavia or Wales.

Fellow national team strikers Christian Vieri and Filippo Inzaghi are also injured.

Inter Milan's Vieri has a bad ankle and was not on the list of 22 players selected Monday, while the sole of one of Inzaghi's feet is troubling the AC Milan player, who was selected.

In addition, Antonio Cassano, Totti's teammate at Roma and the star striker of Italy's Under-21 national squad, will miss the younger Azzurri team's two upcoming matches due to injury.

In a front-page editorial Tuesday entitled "Bad Examples," the Gazzetta indirectly made reference to the possibility that the top players were no longer interested in playing for the national team.

The paper, Italy's largest sports daily, recalled the days when a call-up to the team was "the crowning achievement of many boys' dreams, and at the same time a satisfaction for their clubs."

But these days, with the top players involved in many more games each year, the allegiance seems to have shifted to the clubs that sign the paychecks.

"I don't think that the relationship between club and national team is worn out," Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti was quoted as saying by the Gazzetta. "But it's true that the players must rest. In my playing days you didn't play 70 matches a season."

Ancelotti added that Inzaghi, his top player of late, "could use a little rest."

Ferrari delighted

Parma defender Matteo Ferrari, called up to the Italy squad for the first time, says he did not expect the call from coach Giovanni Trapattoni.

"To be honest I didn't expect it," Ferrari told Parma's official Web site.

"It is an unexpected call-up but it is a reward for Parma's good start to the season. After training on Saturday the [Parma] coach [Cesare Prandelli] hinted at it, although he wasn't certain, it was just a possibility," said Ferrari.

The central defender, a former Italy under-21 international, joined Parma last season from Inter Milan and despite being regarded as one of the most promising young defenders in Serie A found his opportunities limited.

But under Prandelli he has been given a prominent role at the heart of the Parma defense, replacing Fabio Cannavaro after he was sold to Inter.

Ferrari will now be re-united with Cannavaro in the Italy squad.

Yugoslavia's Djordjevic to miss Italy qualifier

BELGRADE (Reuters) -- Yugoslavia's influential midfielder Predrag Djordjevic will miss their European Championship qualifier against Italy in Naples on Saturday, assistant coach Mile Tomic said on Tuesday.

The coach said Djordjevic had been forced to pull out of the squad over a death in his family, without specifying whether the Olympiakos Piraeus player would be available for Yugoslavia's home game against Finland on October 16.

"There is no way Djordjevic can concentrate on soccer under the circumstances and we've been forced to call up several other players as alternatives," Tomic told reporters.

The team's manager Dejan Savicevic has opted for Chievo Verona's winger Nikola Lazetic and GAK Graz midfielder Boban Dmitrovic as possible replacements for Djordjevic on the left flank in his 22-man squad.

Red Star's defender Nemanja Vidic has been given his first international call-up after impressive performances for his club against Chievo in the UEFA Cup and could start alongside Lazio and Yugoslavia stalwart Sinisa Mihajlovic.

Tottenham Hotspur's Goran Bunjevcevic, originally dropped for the qualifier, has been recalled to the squad after what Savicevic said was a string of good games for the English premier league side.

Predrag Mijatovic, who plays his club football for Spanish second division team Levante, is also likely to start either up front or behind the two forwards in a deeper role.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Dragoslav Jevric (Vitesse Arnhem), Dragan Zilic (Sartid Smederevo)

Defenders: Ognjen Koroman (Dynamo Moscow), Nemanja Vidic (Red Star Belgrade), Zoran Mirkovic (Fenerbahce Istanbul), Sinisa Mihajlovic (Lazio), Mladen Krstajic (Werder Bremen), Dejan Stefanovic (Vitesse Arnhem), Ivica Dragutinovic (Standard Liege), Goran Bunjevcevic (Tottenham Hotspur).

Midfield: Zoran Njegus (Seville), Dejan Stankovic (Lazio), Nenad Brnovic (Zeta Golubovci), Goran Trobok, Igor Duljaj (both Partizan Belgrade), Boban Dmitrovic (GAK Graz), Nikola Lazetic (Fenerbahce), Boris Vaskovic (Sartid Smederevo).

Forwards: Predrag Mijatovic (Levante), Mateja Kezman (PSV Eindhoven), Savo Milosevic (Espanyol Barcelona), Darko Kovacevic (Real Sociedad).

 

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