Roberto Mancini will have one more defender at his disposal in the next round of call-ups as Rafael Toloi has finalized the process to get the Italian citizenship and received the greenlight from FIFA, Gazzetta dello Sport reports. The 30-year-old Atalanta center-back is uncapped with Brazil. He has some ancestors from the Treviso area, in the Northeastern region of the Peninsula, and previously voiced his desire to play for the Azzurri.
Mancini plans to have the veteran couple formed by Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini as the starters at Euro 2021, with Francesco Acerbi as the top alternative in case Chiellini was unavailable since injuries have plagued him over the last two years. The new addition would join Alessio Romagnoli, Alessandro Bastoni and Gianluca Mancini as the next men up in the back.
Toloi has arguably been Atalanta’s most reliable defender over their recent successful run. He joined them in 2015 from Sao Paulo after a cup of coffee with Roma in 2013/2014. Since then, he has collected 194 appearances, scoring 11 goals and providing 15 assists. At an international level, he took part to a U-20 South American Championship with Brazil in 2009, which they won, and finished second in the World Cup the same year.
He is set to be one of few new faces for the national team in March, becoming the fourth player not born in Italy, a so-called oriundo, to be fielded by the Mancini after Jorginho, Emerson Palmieri and Vincenzo Grifo.