Francesco Calzona
Osimhen gets new coach as Napoli hire Calzona to replace sacked Mazzarri
Struggling Napoli sacked Walter Mazzarri on Monday and brought in Slovakia coach Francesco Calzona just two days before hosting Barcelona in the Champions League.
The 62-year-old Mazzarri became the second man to be sent packing this season by the ailing Italian champions.
Mazzarri took charge in November after Rudi Garcia was dismissed but Napoli then fell to ninth in Serie A ahead of Wednesday’s last 16, first leg with barca at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
“I thank Walter Mazzarri, a friend of the De Laurentiis family and Napoli, for having helped the team in a tricky period,” said Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis on X, formerly Twitter.
De Laurentiis confirmed that Calzona has been hired, reportedly until the end of the season, and will be in charge on Wednesday night.
“It’s always painful to sack a friend,” said De Laurentiis in a short interview with Sky Sport.
“But we need to consider that in Naples you have to give Napoli fans something extra. Now we’re going to try to do that with Francesco Calzona.”
Calzona guided Slovakia to Euro 2024 but has a huge job on his hands as he returns to Napoli, where he was an assistant under Maurizio Sarri and during Luciano Spalletti’s trophy-less first season with the club.
READ ALSO:
The 55-year-old will reportedly keep his job with Slovakia while also trying to drag Napoli back up the table after the disappointing end to Mazzarri’s brief second spell in charge of southern Italy’s biggest club.
Mazzarri helped return Napoli to the upper echelons of Italian football between 2009 and 2013.
He guided Napoli to the 2012 Italian Cup, beating undefeated league champions Juventus in the final to win the club’s first trophy in over two decades.
Tinubu backs Obasa to remain Lagos speaker, ends assembly crisis President Bola Tinubu has resolved…
Court bans viewing of controversial film, ‘Gang of Lagos’ A Lagos High Court in Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) has…
Real Madrid beat Atletico after bizarre penalty disallowed Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez had a penalty dramatically…
El-Rufai given 48-hour ultimatum on NNPP crisis comment The leadership of the New Nigeria Peoples Party…
Nigerian woman declared dead appears in UK court to reclaim her £350,000 home A 55-year-old Nigerian woman,…
Ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey locked out of X account Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of…
