Latest news with #Mancini
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Roberto Mancini admits: 'I would like to coach Roma.'
Roberto Mancini has emerged as one of the candidates to lead Roma next season. The Italian technician addressed the rumors of his eligibility for the job during the Gianni Di Marzio Prize ceremony, organised by Telenord in Portofino. When asked if he would like to coach the capital club, Mancini replied with a smile: 'Roma is a great team.' 'Would I like to coach them? Yes, yes very much…', leaving the door open to a possible future on the Giallorossi bench. A phrase that immediately ignited speculation about his return to Serie A.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
🔴 Champions battle: Paredes returns and stuns Roma, Gimenez madness 🟥
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here. Decisive evening for the teams fighting for a spot in the next edition of the Champions League. Roma failed to catch up to fourth place against Atalanta and tonight will face Milan. Bologna will visit Fiorentina. Meanwhile, Juventus and Lazio, both with 64 points, will battle for access to Europe's top competition against Udinese and Inter, respectively (HERE'S THE LIVE MATCH). 📊 The Champions League race LIVE 4. Roma 66 pts. 5. Juventus 65 pts. 6. Lazio 64 pts. 7. Fiorentina 62 pts. 8. Bologna 62 pts. 9. Milan 60 pts. 🔴 Roma-Milan 2-1 Roma wants to bounce back immediately after the defeat in Bergamo, while Milan aims to put the lost Coppa Italia behind them and at least secure a Europa League spot. At the Olimpico, it's a direct clash between Ranieri and Conceicao. *Article constantly updated: for live text coverage, click the match card above; to comment, click the speech bubble at the top right.* ⚖️ Joao Felix answers Mancini Despite being a man down, Milan manages to find balance at the Olimpico. Joao Felix equalizes in the 39th minute with a successful tap-in. RANDOM STAT: This is Joao Felix's first league goal: the Portuguese striker ends a drought of over three months. His only previous goal in Italy was in the Coppa Italia quarterfinals—against Roma. 🟥 Madness from Gimenez: elbow to Mancini and a red card In addition to conceding an early goal, Milan makes life even harder: Gimenez elbows Mancini and is sent off with a direct red after a VAR review. Milan down to 10 men. RANDOM STAT: Milan has a problem with red cards: this is the sixth sending-off for the Rossoneri this season. ✈️ Roma takes the lead with Mancini Three minutes later, Roma responds with a goal that electrifies the Olimpico. Mancini rises above everyone on a corner kick and puts Roma ahead of Milan. RANDOM STAT: With Gianluca Mancini, Roma has scored its ninth headed goal in the league. It's the defender's third goal of the season. 🥹 The Olimpico bids farewell to Sir Claudio Ranieri Roma fans pay tribute to Claudio Ranieri: his last match on the Olimpico bench as the Giallorossi leader. Heart-wrenching. 🔴 Juventus-Udinese 0-0 Despite Lazio's last-minute draw in the previous round, Juventus still has the chance to defend fourth place. Tudor's men will face an Udinese side already safe: the imperative is to win, there are no alternatives. *Article constantly updated: for live text coverage, click the match card above; to comment, click the speech bubble at the top right.* 🪵 Nico Gonzalez hits the post: still level at the Stadium Juventus controls the match and manages to hold onto fourth place thanks to results elsewhere, but they need a goal to be safe. The Bianconeri come close to taking the lead with Nico Gonzalez: his shot from the edge slips past Okoye, but the post saves Udinese. 🔴 Fiorentina-Bologna 1-0 Buoyed by their Coppa Italia victory after 51 years, Bologna visits Fiorentina tonight. The Europa League is already secured, but the Champions League is still possible: three points separate the teams, anything can happen. *Article constantly updated: for live text coverage, click the match card above; to comment, click the speech bubble at the top right.* 🟣 Parisi strikes Bologna! Fiorentina scores after 13 minutes with Fabiano Parisi! Great run by the Viola player: the former Empoli man fires from the edge and beats Skorupski with help from a deflection off Lucumì. Bologna temporarily drops to eighth. RANDOM STAT: Second Serie A goal for Parisi: the Fiorentina full-back hadn't scored since October. 📸 Paolo Bruno - 2025 Getty Images
Irish Examiner
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Stunned Sampdoria relegated to Serie C: how did it come to this?
t was not meant to go like this. On a Tuesday evening on the outskirts of Naples, Sampdoria – one of the most beloved Italian clubs of the past 40 years – slipped into Serie C with a whimper – the first time in the club's history that they have been relegated to Italy's third tier. At the final whistle, following a dismal goalless draw at Juve Stabia, Sampdoria's players wept on the pitch. Back home, fans of the club's intercity rivals, Genoa, spilled out on to the shared streets in celebration, setting off fireworks, chanting 'Sampdoria is no more'. That is not quite the case, but it's going to be a long way back for Il Doria, who have long been more accustomed to battling with Juventus than Juve Stabia. Memories of that legendary era in the late 1980s and early '90s seem distant now, as Sampdoria's young and obscenely talented Italians, namely the late Gianluca Vialli and Roberto Mancini, swaggered their way to the 1991 Scudetto in one of the most iconic football shirts of all time; a blue, white red and black masterpiece. Their accomplishments in winning four Coppa Italia titles between 1985 and 1994, the 1990 European Cup Winners' Cup and even their European Cup final appearance against Barcelona at Wembley in 1992 were both incredible and an unsustainable benchmark for the future. Yet, even after Sampdoria's relegation from Serie A in 2023, nobody saw this coming. How did it come to this? In Serie B this season, Sampdoria have cycled through four managers, the first of whom was Andrea Pirlo. The Italian guided La Samp to a playoff place in 2023-24 but after a poor start to this season, was sacked after just three games. Andrea Sottil lasted until December but the worst was to come under Leonardo Semplici, who averaged far less than a point per game between Christmas and his departure in April. Angry supporters reacted by throwing stones and flares at Semplici and his staff on the team bus shortly before his exit. The latest manager is Alberico Evani, who you might remember from Italy's triumphant Euro 2020 campaign as an assistant to Mancini, going viral on the sidelines with his immaculate moustache, trendy spectacles and designer suits. Evani was appointed last month with club (and Crystal Palace) legend Attilio Lombardo as his assistant and lost only one of his six games in charge. Ultimately, though, nine points from those six games was not enough, with Sampdoria a point shy of safety. Club legend Mancini joined Sampdoria in an advisory role this season after the former Manchester City manager left his post as Saudi Arabia head coach last year. Many fans blame Sampdoria's sporting director, Mancini's son Andrea, for their current plight. This season has seen the club field 38 players, including five different goalkeepers. Recent attempts to further bolster the squad have also failed. M'Baye Niang, the former Milan striker who is still 30 years old, joined in January on a six-month contract but has scored just three times in 16 matches. Sampdoria's problems are bigger than a misfiring striker but Niang spurning two gilt-edged chances on Tuesday at Juve Stabia, when a single goal would have saved them from automatic relegation, was particularly painful. GLORY DAYS: Sampdoria goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca and team mate Attilo Lombardo celebrate after the 1994 Copa Italia victory. Pic: Clive Brunskill/Allsport It is not just the players of yesteryear that Sampdoria fans are pining for. Paolo Mantovani is a legendary figure in the club's history, having guided Sampdoria through their golden era as president from 1979 until his death in 1993. Recent owners and suitors have struggled to provide stability: Massimo Ferrero stepped down in 2021 after being jailed as part of an investigation into corporate crimes and bankruptcy. Vialli tried to lead a conglomerate to purchase Sampdoria before ill health and his death in January 2023, before a consortium led by London-based financier Matteo Manfredi succeeded in buying the club (alongside Andrea Radrizzani, although the former Leeds United owner has since stepped aside). However, the new regime's scattergun approach to managers and signings – bringing in players as varied as veteran forward Fabio Borini and 21-year-old Barcelona starlet Estanis Pedrola – has failed, with a crisis of confidence spreading from the boardroom to the players and the fans on the terraces. What is next? Serie C is a regional division split geographically into three groups from north to south. The top and bottom-placed teams in these three mini-leagues are promoted and relegated automatically, with the rest decided by a complex series of playoffs. Many of the stadiums at this level have a capacity of fewer than 2,000 (as a comparison, there are no grounds that small even in the National League South, the sixth-tier of English football). Sampdoria are a giant at this level – the biggest club to drop to Serie C that weren't relegated directly because of financial issues – but promotion next season is not a given. There are many recent Serie A alumni already lurking here: Crotone, Perugia, Vicenza, Catania and Pescara are just some of the larger clubs all fighting to return to their former glories. SPAL, who were in Serie A as recently as five years ago, even face a nervy relegation playoff against Milan's reserve side this Saturday in a desperate bid to avoid dropping into Serie D. At Sampdoria this summer, uncertainty has permeated every level of the club as the dust settles on their relegation from Serie B, with 19 players out of contract this summer and Evani's position under review. Will Manfredi continue to invest? Will Mancini take a more active role or quietly disappear? Whatever happens, Sampdoria and everyone with a rose-tinted fondness for those halcyon '90s days will be hoping that it doesn't get any worse. Guardian
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Stunned Sampdoria relegated to Serie C: how did it come to this?
It was not meant to go like this. On a Tuesday evening on the outskirts of Naples, Sampdoria – one of the most beloved Italian clubs of the past 40 years – slipped into Serie C with a whimper – the first time in the club's history that they have been relegated to Italy's third tier. At the final whistle, following a dismal goalless draw at Juve Stabia, Sampdoria's players wept on the pitch. Back home, fans of the club's intercity rivals, Genoa, spilled out on to the shared streets in celebration, setting off fireworks, chanting 'Sampdoria is no more'. That is not quite the case, but it's going to be a long way back for Il Doria, who have long been more accustomed to battling with Juventus than Juve Stabia. Advertisement Related: Ten transfer targets for Premier League clubs from across Europe Memories of that legendary era in the late 1980s and early 90s seem distant now, as Sampdoria's young and obscenely talented Italians, namely the late Gianluca Vialli and Roberto Mancini, swaggered their way to the 1991 Scudetto in one of the most iconic football shirts of all time; a blue, white red and black masterpiece. Their accomplishments in winning four Coppa Italia titles between 1985 and 1994, the 1990 European Cup Winners' Cup and even their European Cup final appearance against Barcelona at Wembley in 1992 were both incredible and an unsustainable benchmark for the future. Yet, even after Sampdoria's relegation from Serie A in 2023, nobody saw this coming. How did it come to this? In Serie B this season, Sampdoria have cycled through four managers, the first of whom was Andrea Pirlo. The Italian guided La Samp to a playoff place in 2023-24 but after a poor start to this season, was sacked after just three games. Andrea Sottil lasted until December but the worst was to come under Leonardo Semplici, who averaged far less than a point per game between Christmas and his departure in April. Angry supporters reacted by throwing stones and flares at Semplici and his staff on the team bus shortly before his exit. Advertisement The latest manager is Alberico Evani, who you might remember from Italy's triumphant Euro 2020 campaign as an assistant to Mancini, going viral on the sidelines with his immaculate moustache, trendy spectacles and designer suits. Evani was appointed last month with club (and Crystal Palace) legend Attilio Lombardo as his assistant and lost only one of his six games in charge. Ultimately, though, nine points from those six games was not enough, with Sampdoria a point shy of safety. Club legend Mancini joined Sampdoria in an advisory role this season after the former Manchester City manager left his post as Saudi Arabia head coach last year. Many fans blame Sampdoria's sporting director, Mancini's son Andrea, for their current plight. This season has seen the club field 38 players, including five different goalkeepers. Recent attempts to further bolster the squad have also failed. M'Baye Niang, the former Milan striker who is still 30 years old, joined in January on a six-month contract but has scored just three times in 16 matches. Sampdoria's problems are bigger than a misfiring striker but Niang spurning two gilt-edged chances on Tuesday at Juve Stabia, when a single goal would have saved them from automatic relegation, was particularly painful. It is not just the players of yesteryear that Sampdoria fans are pining for. Paolo Mantovani is a legendary figure in the club's history, having guided Sampdoria through their golden era as president from 1979 until his death in 1993. Recent owners and suitors have struggled to provide stability: Massimo Ferrero stepped down in 2021 after being jailed as part of an investigation into corporate crimes and bankruptcy. Vialli tried to lead a conglomerate to purchase Sampdoria before ill health and his death in January 2023, before a consortium led by London-based financier Matteo Manfredi succeeded in buying the club (alongside Andrea Radrizzani, although the former Leeds United owner has since stepped aside). However, the new regime's scattergun approach to managers and signings – bringing in players as varied as veteran forward Fabio Borini and 21-year-old Barcelona starlet Estanis Pedrola – has failed, with a crisis of confidence spreading from the boardroom to the players and the fans on the terraces. Advertisement What is next? Serie C is a regional division split geographically into three groups from north to south. The top and bottom-placed teams in these three mini-leagues are promoted and relegated automatically, with the rest decided by a complex series of playoffs. Many of the stadiums at this level have a capacity of fewer than 2,000 (as a comparison, there are no grounds that small even in the National League South, the sixth-tier of English football). Sampdoria are a giant at this level – the biggest club to drop to Serie C that weren't relegated directly because of financial issues – but promotion next season is not a given. There are many recent Serie A alumni already lurking here: Crotone, Perugia, Vicenza, Catania and Pescara are just some of the larger clubs all fighting to return to their former glories. SPAL, who were in Serie A as recently as five years ago, even face a nervy relegation playoff against Milan's reserve side this Saturday in a desperate bid to avoid dropping into Serie D. At Sampdoria this summer, uncertainty has permeated every level of the club as the dust settles on their relegation from Serie B, with 19 players out of contract this summer and Evani's position under review. Will Manfredi continue to invest? Will Mancini take a more active role or quietly disappear? Whatever happens, Sampdoria and everyone with a rose-tinted fondness for those halcyon 90s days will be hoping that it doesn't get any worse.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Scudetto to Serie C - where did it go wrong for Sampdoria?
Italy has more than its fair share of iconic football clubs. AC Milan. Inter Milan. Juventus. Napoli. Lazio. Roma. These institutions roll off the tongue. For many English fans of Italian football, particularly those whose love of calcio can be traced back to Channel 4's 'Football Italia', Sampdoria belong on that list. In the decade between 1984 and 1994 Sampdoria won six major titles, while modern greats Trevor Francis, Roberto Mancini, Gianluca Vialli, Ruud Gullit and David Platt all wore the club's iconic strip. The Blucerchiati of that period acquired a cultural cachet that was hard to match. Yet after years of turbulence Sampdoria, Serie A winners in 1991, have experienced the unthinkable - relegation to the Italian third tier for the first time in the club's history. Where did it all go wrong? Unusually for a club with such a large cult following, Sampdoria are relative newcomers to the Italian football landscape. The northern Italian port city of Genoa has a proud footballing heritage -Sampdoria's city rivals Genoa Cricket and Football Club were founded in 1893 and are the oldest active team in Italy. The most recent of Genoa's nine top-flight titles came 21 years before Sampdoria were formed in 1946, following a merger of middling Genoese clubs Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria. That unification produced their iconic home shirts - the blue represents Andrea Doria while the white, red and black mid-section came from Sampierdarenese. Sampdoria have always shared a ground - the Stadio Luigi Ferraris - with neighbours Genoa, but for 38 years did not enjoy the kind of success befitting of one of Italy's grandest arenas. Everything changed in 1984. Before the 1984-85 season, Sampdoria's only honour was the 1966-67 second division title. Yet over the next decade the club won the Coppa Italia four times - more than any other side during that period - were crowned Serie A champions, won the European Cup Winners' Cup and played in a European Cup final. After assuming the club presidency in 1979, Paolo Mantovani was the man who turned an unfashionable mid-table team into serial winners. Having made his money in the oil business, Mantovani spent heavily but smartly to propel Sampdoria to unprecedented heights. Big names like Francis, Graeme Souness and Liam Brady were signed, but it was the recruitment of some of the best young Italian talents that really paid off. A 17-year-old Mancini arrived from Bologna in 1982, followed two years later by a 19-year-old Vialli from Cremonese. Nicknamed the 'goal twins' because of their prolific attacking partnership, both scored in the second leg of the 1984-95 Coppa Italia final, the first major title in Sampdoria's history. Mancini and Vialli first met at 16 playing for Italy's youth teams and formed a close friendship that characterised the unity in the Sampdoria squad. "We have a relationship that goes way beyond friendship," Mancini said before Vialli's death from pancreatic cancer in 2023. "He's almost like a brother to me." Along with goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca, defender Pietro Vierchowod, attacking right-back Moreno Mannini, midfield anchor Fausto Pari and electric winger Attilio Lombardo, the duo formed the backbone of a team that won three more Coppa Italia titles - and the club's first and only Scudetto in 1990-91 under legendary manager Vujadin Boskov. "Mantovani cultivated a remarkable camaraderie among a uniquely talented group," says Italian football writer Stephen Kasiewicz. "Despite more lucrative offers the core of the team stayed together." Boskov's side won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1990, and lost to Johan Cruyff's Barcelona 'dream team' in the European Cup final two years later. But nothing lasts forever. Mantovani's death in 1993 was "the beginning of the end at Sampdoria", according to Italian football journalist David Ferrini. He added: "Mantovani's reign attracted talent and kept them happy in Genoa, but his passing - combined with the hangover of the Scudetto success - meant that Sampdoria's best players became prime transfer targets." In 1992 they had lost Vialli to Juventus for a then world record £12m, while Inter Milan paid £7m for Pagliuca in 1994, a record for a goalkeeper at the time. Vierchowod joined Juventus 12 months later before Mancini followed Sven Goran Eriksson - who had replaced Boskov as manager in 1992 - to Lazio in 1997. Experienced stars Gullit and Platt joined for brief spells, but Sampdoria no longer had the same appeal they once did. Enrico Mantovani took over as president but failed to replicate his father's success - and a steady decline followed the Coppa Italia triumph of 1993-94. In 1999 the club were relegated to Serie B. Things improved under the presidency of local entrepreneur Riccardo Garrone, who guided them back to Serie A in 2003 and signed future cult heroes Fabio Quagliarella and Antonio Cassano. Yet the highlights of the 21st Century have been losing the Coppa Italia final in 2008-09 and a fourth-place league finish the following year. Outspoken film producer Massimo Ferrero bought the club in 2014 - taking on its growing debts - but what followed was seven years of selling their best players, spending little on replacements and flirting with relegation on a regular basis. "He seemed more concerned with bolstering his own image, as the bizarre star of his own one-man reality football show, than making sure Samp prospered," says Kasiewicz. In December 2021 Ferrero was arrested and jailed as part of an investigation into corporate crimes and bankruptcy, unrelated to the club. He resigned as president. "The club effectively ceased to function. It's been like a house of cards," says Nima Tavallaey, Italian football journalist and co-host of the Italian Football Podcast. With no funds available and Ferrero refusing to relinquish control, Sampdoria narrowly avoided relegation from Serie A in 2022. But in 2023 they did go down, amid reports of unpaid player wages. With the club staring down the barrel of bankruptcy and demotion to the fourth tier, a consortium led by former Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani and London-based financier Matteo Manfredi - and his company Gestio Capital - bought the club, although Radrizzani has since divested his shares. Gestio Capital and its investors control 99.96% of the club, with investment vehicle Kickoff Ventures owning 58% of those shares. Kickoff Ventures is owned by Singaporean businessman Joseph Tey Wei Jin, who was named in the 2015 Panama Papers. Italian World Cup winner Andrea Pirlo was hired as coach in 2023-24. After a dismal start to the campaign his side won seven of their final 11 games to secure a seventh-place finish in Serie B and a spot in the promotion play-offs, where they lost 2-0 to Palermo in the preliminary round. Gestio invested about £45m during their first season, but things have not gone according to plan this term. The month before Sampdoria's play-off exit Manfredi had described Pirlo as "a key part of the project" - yet three games into the current campaign he was dismissed following two defeats and a draw. Andrea Sottil replaced him and, although he oversaw a Coppa Italia penalty shootout victory against Genoa in the first Derby della Lanterna in two years, he was jettisoned too after just four wins in 14 games. Leonardo Semplici arrived in December but, with the club in the drop zone, a 3-0 home defeat by Frosinone at the end of March was the tipping point for the fans as patience with Semplici ran out. The team bus carrying Semplici and his Sampdoria players was pelted by stones and flares by angry supporters after the match at the Luigi Ferraris Stadium. Semplici was relieved of his duties in April with Alberico Evani - the club's fourth coach of the season - tasked with keeping them up. Things began promisingly for Evani with club legend Attilio Lombardo in as assistant and another Sampdoria icon in Roberto Mancini helping in an unofficial capacity. Evani began with a 1-0 win over fellow strugglers Cittadella, but three draws, a defeat and just one win since then have not been enough to keep them up. For Tavallaey, Sampdoria must now start again with a "proper project" in place to return the club to its former glories.. "They have to build a proper project with a proper sporting directorship and a proper manager to help them back to Serie A. They're a sleeping beauty." This article was first published in March 2025. Listen to the latest Football Daily podcast Get football news sent straight to your phone
