[Oscar del Calcio] Mancini snubbed for award

Roberto Mancini, who led Serie A leaders Inter to last year's Scudetto, has been overlooked in the Italian Player Association's nominations for the 2007 Manager of the Year award.

Carlo Ancelotti, coach of World and European champions AC Milan, is in the running for the award on Monday's Oscar del Calcio ceremony - the Italian Players' Association (AIC) announced today.

Cesare Prandelli of Fiorentina and Roma's Luciano Spalletti, who lifted the Coppa Italia trophy, are also nominated for the award.

Roma captain Francesco Totti and his Giallarossi teammate Daniele De Rossi face competition from Milan's Andrea Pirlo for the award of Italian Player of the Year while Inter's Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ricardo Kaka of Milan and Fiorentina's Adrian Mutu have been nominated for best Foreign Player of the Year.

An Overall Player of the Year will also be chosen from the two winners later on during the evening.

In other categories, Sebastian Frey (Fiorentina), Julio Cesar (Inter) and Angelo Peruzzi (now retired, last season at Lazio) will fight it out for the Best Goalkeeper award, and Marco Materazzi (Inter), Philippe Mexes (Roma) and Alessandro Nesta (Milan) are in the race to be named Best Defender.

The Best Young Player award will go to either Riccardo Montolivo, Giampaolo Pazzini (both Fiorentina) or Giuseppe Rossi (Villarreal, last season at Parma), while Nicola Rizzoli, Roberto Rosetti and Massimiliano Saccani have been nominated for the Best Referee award.

There will also be a special award handed out for the Best Player between 1997 and 2007, while viewers of the live ceremony on Sportitalia will be able to vote on a Fans Player of the Year award and the Best Goal of the Year.

Source: Reuters / AIC / Sportitalia