ROME, Italy (AFP) — Former Italy playmaker Andrea Pirlo, who was favoured for the national coaching post, expressed his bitterness on Monday over the debate which has led to him no longer being a candidate.

The 47-year-old had, to many Italian fans’ surprise, become the favourite to be tasked with reviving the national side’s fortunes after they failed for the third successive time to qualify for the World Cup.

He had benefited from Spanish great Pep Guardiola declining an offer.

Despite the latest setback, Giovanni Malago, president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), said later on Monday that the new coach would be named “soon”.

Whilst Pirlo had a stellar playing career — including being a key member of the 2006 World Cup-winning side — his coaching CV is short on success.

A contract with a Russian betting firm had only added fuel to misgivings, with several Italian politicians saying over the weekend that his appointment would be inappropriate.

“[I] learned yesterday evening that I am no longer a candidate to be coach of the national side,” Pirlo wrote in a post on Instagram, adding that he felt the need to “clarify certain points”.

According to Italian media, he was due to be named this week despite his only trophy success since turning to coaching in 2020 being a single Italian Cup.

Presently coach of United Arab Emirates side Dubai United, he failed to deliver when in charge of Juventus — for whom he had sparkled as a player — Sampdoria and Turkish outfit Karagumruk.

Pirlo said in his post that he was angry at being judged not on his sporting record but on the wider issue over his links to Russia.

He and fellow 2006 World Cup winner Marco Materazzi had taken part in May at an event held by the betting firm in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, signing autographs.

“I have followed with great bitterness the debate surrounding my candidacy,” he wrote, whilst thanking Italy’s technical director and former AC Milan teammate Paolo Maldini and his advisor Leonardo for their “esteem and confidence [in him]”.

“I regret that a decision which is based on sporting criteria rapidly became a public controversy, in which intentions and ideas which do not reflect my personality were attributed to me.”

According to Italian media, whilst Leonardo and Maldini preferred Pirlo to the prickly but significantly more successful Antonio Conte, newly-installed federation chief Malago had been against the appointment from the start.

Conte — who has won the Serie A title with three different clubs and also the Premier League with Chelsea — is back in the frame for the job of coaching the Euro 2020 champions, according to la Gazzetta dello Sport.

Conte, who turns 57 on Friday, previously coached Italy 2014-16, guiding the Italians to the Euro 2016 quarter-finals where they lost to Germany on penalties.

Maldini is apparently threatening to resign, after just three weeks in the job, if either Conte or another former national coach Roberto Mancini, who coached them to Euro 2020 success, is appointed.

The former AC Milan and Italy legend’s preferred choice now is Brazil-born former Italy international Thiago Motta, who has coached Bologna and Juventus, amongst other clubs.