Khaberni - Gianluigi Donnarumma is known to be one of the world's most prominent goalkeepers in saving penalty kicks, and he played the hero in leading his country to the European Cup title in the summer of 2021 at the expense of England, but something happened in Zenica on Tuesday that caused his country to fail to qualify for the World Cup for the third time in a row.
Italy failed to avoid what is considered a disaster for a country that breathes football, and failed to qualify for the finals after falling in penalty kicks against their host Bosnia and Herzegovina, who qualified for the World Cup for the second time in their history.
Donnarumma was extremely angry towards the Bosnia and Herzegovina team after losing the first path final of the European playoff in penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw in both regulation and extra time.
The reason has now been revealed, as one of the ball retrievers stole the penalty kick instruction sheet belonging to the Manchester City goalkeeper.
The Italian team held on with ten men after Alessandro Bastoni was sent off in the 41st minute, causing the hosts to come back and equalize about 10 minutes before the end of regular time.
After the score remained unchanged after extension, many expected Donnarumma, like he had done against the English in the summer of 2021 at Wembley Stadium, to have the final say.
But this time, the former Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper did not come close to any of the penalty kicks executed by the Bosnians, and was seen screaming angrily at the home team's goalkeeper, Nikola Vasil.
The reason was his accusation against the Bosnian keeper of stealing the instruction sheet which was hidden under his towel before the penalty kicks, in an attempt to tear up his counterpart's own instruction list related to the Italian players, according to the website "Football Italia".
It later turned out that Donnarumma's sheet was indeed stolen, but not by Vasil, rather by a 14-year-old ball retriever.
This boy is a youth team player at the Celik Club named Avan Cigemitch, and he has revealed the full story in a talk to a local television station.
He said: I saw something next to the towel and immediately realized what it was. I took it and hid it. It contained all the instructions related to our players, and without that sheet, Donnarumma had to rely solely on his intuition.
Although what he did may be considered unsportsmanlike, some Bosnian fans are calling for Cigemitch to be rewarded by being given a trip to the World Cup to become the team's talisman.
As for Donnarumma, he will have to wait until the 2030 World Cup to try participating in the finals for the first time.
