Manolo Gabbiadini earns Italian national team callup

The Italy squad for the upcoming international window has - finally - been announced, and Napoli have a single representative: forward Manolo Gabbiadini.

Gabbiadini has scored five goals in fifteen all-competitions matches since joining Napoli in January, after scoring nine for Sampdoria earlier in the season. He's made two other senior appearances for Italy, and scored 14 goals in 27 combined youth appearances for the Italy U-21's and U-20's. What role he plays in the squad is a little unclear, but it seems more likely that Gabbiadini is used as an impact sub in Italy's two matches.

With Christian Maggio not fully fit and out of form, and Lorenzo Insigne yet to play after tearing his ACL in November, Gabbiadini was the only Napoli player under consideration for a place in the squad by manager Antonio Conte.

Italy will play Bulgaria on March 28th in a Euro 2016 qualifier as they try to pull away from their group, then face England in a friendly in Turin on the 31st. Two foreign nationals, Franco Vazquez and Eder, earned their first callups as naturalized Italian citizens after playing in the country for most of their respective careers. Rumored Napoli transfer target Mirko Valdifiori is also in line for his first Italy cap thanks in no small part to Andrea Pirlo's still-nagging calf injury.

The full squad called up for the matches is listed below.

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Mattia Perin (Genoa), Sirigu (Paris Saint-Germain)

Defenders: Andrea Barzagli (Juventus), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Emiliano Moretti (Torino), Andrea Ranocchia (Inter), Luca Antonelli (Milan), Matteo Darmian (Torino), Manuel Pasqual (Fiorentina)

Midfielders: Andrea Bertolacci (Genoa), Antonio Candreva (Lazio), Alecio Cerci (Milan), Alessandro Florenzi (Roma), Claudio Marchisio (Juventus), Marco Parolo (Lazio), Roberto Soriano (Sampdoria), Mirko Valdifiori (Empoli), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain)

Forwards: Eder (Sampdoria), Manolo Gabbiadini (Napoli), Ciro Immobile (Borussia Dortmund), Graziano Pellé (Southampton), Franco Vazquez (Palermo), Simone Zaza (Sassuolo)