When Wilfried Gnonto was given a chance to impress with the national team by Roberto Mancini, the young player, then still at Basel before moving to Leeds United, took it with both hands.
This partly led to his transfer to Elland Road, as the Whites jumped ahead of the competition to sign an up and coming talent for a minimal fee.
Gnonto then exploded in the Premier League before regressing in the Championship, which has led him to drop out of the national team since Luciano Spalletti took over, as covered by OA Sport in Italy.
With the Euros coming up in the summer, he wants to impress as best he can after recently being ‘relegated’ to the U21s for his country, but it’s pointed out he has only eight starts in the Championship from 22 appearances (the article was written before the Rotherham game).
For him to get called up by Spalletti, the Leeds player needs to ‘find space, continuity and decent effectiveness’ in front of goal, which he appears to have found a bit, scoring the winner against Bristol City last week.
In short, if he doesn’t impress, the doors to the Italy national team could be ‘closed to him’, and he seems to be facing an uphill battle unless something drastic changes in the coming months.
