Juventus seeks the expertise of coach Spalletti sports

Luciano Spalletti, the former Italian national team coach, has been appointed coach of Juventus, according to what the seventh-placed team in the league announced on Thursday.

Juventus explained in a statement, “Luciano Spalletti is the new coach of Juventus: the Tuscan coach has signed a contract that expires on June 30, 2026.”

Spalletti, 66 years old, will succeed Croatian Igor Todor, who was dismissed from his position on Monday, 7 months after assuming his technical duties, following the third defeat in 8 days for the Turin club.

Spalletti will lead his new team for the first time against Cremonese on Saturday in the tenth round of the league.

According to the local press, Spalletti’s contract includes the option of an automatic extension for two years, if Juventus qualifies for the Champions League competition next season.

Spalletti, who has extensive coaching experience with 559 matches in Serie A and 67 in the Champions League, has become the sixth coach to supervise the “Old Lady” team since May 2024, including interim coach Massimo Brambilla, who led him to achieve his first victory in a month and a half, which came at the expense of Udinese 3-1 on Wednesday.

Juventus is also embarking on the 13th coaching adventure in Spalletti’s career, after supervising Empoli, Sampdoria, Venezia, Udinese (twice), Ancona, Roma (twice), Russian Zenit Saint Petersburg, Inter, Napoli, and finally the Italian national team, which he supervised in 24 matches from September 2023 until last June (won 12, lost 6, and tied 6).

Spalletti was dismissed from his position as coach of the national team in June after losing to Norway in Oslo 0-3, which undermined Italy’s chances of securing a direct ticket to the 2026 World Cup, making this the biggest failure in this coach’s career.

During his career, Spalletti won the Italian Cup twice and the Super Cup once in the colors of Roma, the Russian League twice, and both the Cup and the Super Cup once, in addition to being crowned league champions with Napoli in 2023.

The “Old Lady” team is going through a very difficult period that began since its victory over Inter 4-3 on September 13 in the league, after which it failed to achieve victory in 8 matches locally and continentally, and fell in the last three tests against Como (0-2) and Lazio (0-1) in the league and Spanish Real Madrid (0-1) in the Champions League, before returning to winning ways against Udinese.

Tudor took over the task of supervising the team, which he played as a player between 1998 and 2007, last March, succeeding Thiago Motta. The club decided to retain his services until the summer of 2027 after he succeeded in leading the team, albeit in the last breath, to obtain the final fourth place that qualifies for the Champions League.

The Croatian played only 24 matches as coach of his former team, winning only 10, compared to 8 draws and 6 defeats.

Juventus occupies seventh place on goal difference behind sixth-placed Bologna (15 points each), 6 points behind leaders Napoli and second-placed Roma, while it was satisfied with two points from its three matches in the unified group stage of the Champions League competition.