AS ROMA PART WAYS WITH MANAGER JOSE MOURINHO & HIS COACHING STAFF, HIRE CLUB LEGEND DANIELE DE ROSSI
Italian giants AS Roma have parted ways with manager José Mourinho and his coaching staff with immediate effect, the club announced on Tuesday morning. The club confirmed that they were hiring Roma and Azzuri legend Daniele De Rossi as his replacement.
“We would like to thank José on behalf of all of us at AS Roma for his passion and efforts since his arrival at the club,” said the club’s owners, Dan and Ryan Friedkin in a statement released via the club’s official website. “We will always have great memories of his tenure at Roma but we believe that an immediate change is in the best interest of the club. We wish José and his assistants all the best in their future endeavors.”
The decision to move on from Mourinho was exclusively made by the club’s owners, the Friedkin family.
Mourinho was unveiled as the I Giallorossi’s 60th head coach on May 4, 2021 and ended the club’s 11-year drought without silverware by delivering the UEFA Europa Conference League title in his first season at the club. The 60-year-old is the only manager in football history to achieve the UEFA treble by winning the Champions League, Europa League, and the Europa Conference League. That was also the first time an Italian club won a continental championship since Inter Milan’s UEFA Champions League success in the 2009/10 season, achieved under Mourinho himself as head coach.
The Portuguese coach would reach a second European final in his second season in charge, getting his team to the Europa League final for the first time in 32 years, but fell short against Spanish side Sevilla. That was Mourinho’s first and only loss in a European final, which came in May, 2023 as his side lost 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in extra time.
A string of negative results this season, however, which left the club in ninth place in Serie A, seemed to be the final straw for the club’s ownership. Roma have won just one game from their last six and currently sit 15 points behind fourth-placed Atalanta, well behind the UEFA Champions League spots.
A couple of bad losses in five days – a 1-0 defeat to Lazio in the Coppa Italia quarter finals on Wednesday and a 3-1 loss to AC Milan in the league – didn’t help Mourinho’s case and ultimately led to the club deciding to move in a different direction.
The club have since swiftly moved on to Daniele De Rossi, striking a deal with the club legend just hours after confirming José Mourinho’s departure.
The Friedkins said “We are happy to be able to hand over the managerial role of AS Roma to Daniele De Rossi, as we feel that the leadership and ambition that have always defined him can prove decisive in achieving the team’s objectives until the end of the season.”
“We were aware of Daniele’s unbreakable bond with the club, but his enthusiasm for accepting the position for the next few months convinced us even more of his ability to be a guide for the players and a proud representative of the club’s values. Welcome home, Daniele.”
Multiple Tuesday morning reports from the Italian capital confirmed that the club was already speaking to De Rossi about a return to Rome, with the Italian reported to be at the top of the list of potential replacement candidates. The 40-year-old joins his former side on a six-month contract until the end of the season, after which both parties would decide if they wished to carry on together.
“The excitement of being able to sit on our bench is indescribable,” said De Rossi. “Everyone knows what Roma means to me. However, the work that awaits us all has already taken precedence. We have no time or choice but to be competitive, fight for our goals, and try to achieve them, which are the only priorities my staff and I have set for ourselves.”
De Rossi retired from professional football on Jan. 6, 2020 with Argentinian club, Boca Juniors, after a successful 19-year career with AS Roma and has since ventured into coaching. De Rossi was among the Italian national team’s coaching staff which lifted the European Championship trophy in 2021 and most recently held the managerial role at Serie B side, SPAL, for four months.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: Ronnie Macdonald. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.