The selection of a Brazilian-born player for Italy's national soccer team is fueling a debate with racial and xenophobic overtones.
A lawmaker with the Northern League government party, known for its anti-immigrant rhetoric, says Italy should promote homegrown talent rather than making room for ''leftovers'' from other nations.
Amauri, a Brazilian native getting his first chance to line up for the country where he has spent most of his career, says he will play ''against prejudice.''
''I wanted Italy,'' Amauri said from the Azzurri's training ground in Monday's Gazzetta dello Sport. ''I'm happy and proud.''
Amauri's call-up for Tuesday's exhibition game against the Ivory Coast in London is part of an effort by new coach Cesare Prandelli to inject fresh blood into a team that made an embarrassing World Cup exit.
The 30-year-old Amauri is a late bloomer who has never played for his country of birth or Italy. He gained Italian citizenship in April by way of marriage and had hoped to be picked for the World Cup, but he was in poor form last season and left off the team.
Also called up was Mario Balotelli, a talented 19-year-old of Ghanian descent who has been subjected to racial taunts from fans at games in Italy the past two seasons.
''I will play against prejudice,'' Amauri said. ''Mario and I will do everything we can to make these people change their minds.''
If Balotelli's case highlights the racism in Italian stadiums, Amauri's call-up underlines the issue of naturalization of foreign-born players.
At the World Cup in South Africa, some players among the 32 teams did not compete for their countries of birth. FIFA rules stipulate that players with dual nationalities are free to switch sides at any age, as long as they haven't appeared in an official game.
The debate is especially sensitive in Italy, where mass immigration is a relatively new phenomenon and where tensions occasionally flare between Italians and a growing immigrant community. While Italy's long coastline attracts large numbers of immigrants every year, mostly from North Africa, many try to move on to other European nations, or are repatriated.
''Talent and Naturalized Players: A message for the Future,'' was the headline of a front-page editorial this weekend in La Repubblica, welcoming Prandelli's choices.
The newspaper said Prandelli had launched ''a political signal, rather than a technical one: The new Italy is open to (naturalized players), and hopefully, like Germany, to the sons of immigrants.''
After Italy's World Cup flop, many Italian commentators praised the German squad - featuring a Brazilian-born player and one of Turkish descent - as a model.
Not all agree.
''The real representatives of this country aren't its foreigners,'' Northern League lawmaker Davide Cavallotto said. ''What Brazil refused, we took,'' he said, calling Amauri a ''leftover.''
Cavallotto reportedly urged the Italian soccer federation to start promoting homegrown talent, as it did in the past with players like Roberto Baggio and Francesco Totti.
The Northern League is not new to such provocative comments. During the World Cup, the party's radio station drew rebuke when it rooted for Paraguay in Italy's opening game and party officials said Italy players were overpaid.
Daniele De Rossi, Italy's captain for Tuesday's game, said the decision to call up players does not rest with the League.
Speaking to reporters Monday, he noted that Mauro Camoranesi, an Argentine-born midfielder, had been part of Italy's squad for years, including when the Azzurri won the 2006 World Cup.
''As far as I and my teammates are concerned, whoever comes into this group will be well received,'' De Rossi said.
For his part, Prandelli is holding firm.
''There will always be controversy,'' he said. ''I'm going ahead because I think it's the right path.''
