Mercurial Sampdoria star Antonio Cassano mustn't give up hope of reclaiming a place in the Italy squad, coach Marcello Lippi said Monday.
Speaking after Cassano told Italian TV that he felt he had no chance of getting a recall ''as long as Lippi is coach,'' the 2006 World Cup winning manager said:
''Cassano is wrong to be pessimistic. He mustn't think he won't get an Italy jersey as long as I'm here''.
Cassano last played for Italy at Euro 2008 where he was unable to turn around a match against Spain which the eventual champions won on penalties against Roberto Donadoni's side.
Italian soccer pundits say he has done himself no favours with Lippi, a strict disciplinarian, by recently revealing he used to smuggle girls into training camp.
But Lippi made no comment on Cassano's tell-all (auto)biography, saying only that ''performances on the field are what matter''.
Cassano, 26, has mostly succeeded in shedding his 'enfant terrible' image at Sampdoria, apart from an incident in March when he was banned for five games for threatening a referee.
Lippi, who six years ago described Cassano as ''a genius,'' only used the ex-Roma and Real Madrid player twice in the run-up to Germany 2006, where the talented forward didn't make the cut.
The last time Cassano really produced the goods for Italy was in the last game of Euro 2004, under Giovanni Trapattoni, when he scored a great but heart-breakingly superfluous equaliser in Italy's last group match against Bulgaria.
Cassano has been hailed as the greatest talent of his generation.
His goalscoring instincts, silky skills, cockiness and ability to beat opponents and make killer passes have turned him into one of Italy's most highly rated stars.
But his public protests at being dropped from line-ups and recurrent failure to turn up for training have earned him the label of bad boy of Italian soccer.
His temper tantrums have become so frequent that the Italian press has now dubbed them 'Cassanate' - a play on the widely used swear word 'cazzata' meaning f**k-up.
In other comments, Lippi said he would consider Juve frontman Amauri's prospects if and when the Brazilian-born forward gets an Italian passport.
The Azzurri chief added that he ''respected'' Roma star Francesco Totti's renewed clarification that he wasn't thinking of stepping out of international retirement.
