Italy coach Marcello Lippi named his 29-man roster prior to the World Cup.

He did exclude players from both Inter and AS Roma as they will be playing in the final of the Coppa Italia. These two sides are also battling for the Scudetto as well. Inter meantime are looking to become the first Italian side to win the treble. So players like Daniele De Rossi and Luca Toni. This also gives Inter's mercurial striker Mario Balotelli a chance to still be part of the squad.

Lippi will have to decide which six players he will have to leave out prior to his trip to South Africa. Based on the initial list, the big shock could be the exclusion of Villarreal striker Giuseppe Rossi.  The native of Tea Neck, New Jersey was a constant call for the Azzurri during World Cup qualifying and was the team's leading scorer in last year's Confederations Cup.  But his current campaign with the Yellow Submarine

Another player that will not get the callup from Lippi will be Juventus striker Amauri. The Brazilian-born poacher was being speculated to go with the Italians after well over two seasons of speculation over which colors he would be defending come South Africa. In the end he will be left out by both Italy and Brazil.

Other that were left out of the mix were Palermo's Fabrizio Miccoli as well as Sampdoria's Antonio Cassano.

Italy begin the defense of their title on as they face Paraguay on June 14th. They will then play Slovakia and finish off group play against Oceania champs New Zealand.


Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Morgan De Sanctis (Napoli), Federico Marchetti (Cagliari), Salvatore Sirigu (Palermo)

Defenders: Salvatore Bocchetti and Domenico Criscito (Genoa), Leonardo Bonucci (Bari), Fabio Cannavaro, Giorgio Chiellini, Fabio Grosso and Nicola Legrottaglie (all Juventus), Mattia Cassani (Palermo), Christian Maggio (Napoli), Gianluca Zambrotta (Milan)

Midfielders: Mauro German Camoranesi, Antonio Candreva and Claudio Marchisio (all Juventus), Andrea Cossu (Cagliari), Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Angelo Palombo (Sampdoria), Simone Pepe (Udinese)

Forwards: Marco Borriello (AC Milan), Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Juventus), Giampaolo Pazzini (Sampdoria), Fabio Quagliarella (Napoli)