Maurizio Sarri Sacked As Juventus Manager
Italian
giants Juventus have sacked Maurizio Sarri as manager after just one season.
Sarri guided
Juventus to a ninth straight Serie A title but they were knocked out of the
Champions League by Lyon at the last-16 stage.
Juve won 2-1
in Turin on Friday but the French side progressed on away goals.
Italian
Sarri, 61, was appointed on a three-year contract last summer after
one year at Premier League club Chelsea.
Juventus
lost three of their last four league matches to finish only one point clear of
Inter Milan in the end.
They were
also beaten by Napoli in the Coppa Italia final after football in the country
restarted following the coronavirus shutdown.
Juventus are
two-time European Cup/Champions League winners but have not lifted the trophy
since 1996.
Former banker
Sarri coached 16 different sides in the lower divisions of Italian football
before reaching Serie A with Empoli in 2014.
After three
years at Napoli, he moved to Chelsea where he finished third in the Premier
League and won the Europa League in his one season in charge.
He then
succeeded Massimiliano Allegri at Juventus in June 2019 and became the oldest
manager to win Serie A.
A club
statement thanked Sarri for "having written a new page in Juventus'
history", adding that it was "the culmination of a personal journey
that led him to climb all the divisions of Italian football".
Speaking
after Friday's match, Juventus president Andrea Agnelli said the season had
been "bittersweet". He said that despite the Serie A triumph, their
Champions League performance had been "disappointing" and there was a
need for "cold and lucid analysis".
"Juventus
starts every year with many goals, and these must be honoured, because we have
great players and the best player in Champions League history, [Cristiano]
Ronaldo, who is a pillar of Juventus," added Agnelli.
Some of the
names mentioned by the Italian media as potential Sarri successors include
former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino, Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi, Real
Madrid manager and former Juve player Zinedine Zidane, and Allegri.
Speaking to
BBC Radio 5 Live, European football expert Guillem Balague said Juventus
"admire" Pochettino, who was sacked by Spurs in November.
"They
spoke to him when he was manager at Spurs, but he has not got a job now,"
said Balague.
"The
reason why Pochettino didn't get a job at Bayern, Juventus, Inter Milan or Real
Madrid was because he had a job, and to leave Spurs would have cost a lot. Now
he is waiting for his opportunity.
"He has
always admired Italian football. The opportunity to get him won't cost anything
and he is ready to take a job offer."
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