Report: Fabio Grosso will be Fiorentina’s new coach

Despite a couple improbably wins at the end of the year, we’ve always known that Paolo Vanoli’s time in Florence would expire this summer. According to just about everyone on the internet, Fiorentina’s working on the final details to bring current Sassuolo head coach Fabio Grosso on a 2-year deal with a club option for a 3rd. It’s okay. Go ahead. Shriek along Fabio Caressa. I did it too.

Right. Let’s do the quick biographical bit. Grosso was, of course, a legendary leftback. He came up through the lower leagues before debuting at 23 in Serie A with Perugia before moving to Palermo, helping the Rosaneri achieve promotion and earning a move to Inter Milan. It didn’t really work out with Roberto Mancini and Grosso off to Lyon in 2007 before returning to Italy with Juventus in 2009 for the final 3 years of his playing career. I’ve never really thought of him as a club player because his importance to the Azzurri, of course. That goal against Germany in the World Cup semifinal. C’mon, man.

Anyways, Grosso went straight into coaching in the Juve academy. He led the Primavera for 3 years before moving up to the 2nd team boss for another 3 years before stepping into senior coaching. His stints at Bari, Brescia, Hellas Verona, and Sion didn’t go that well. Frankly, I thought he was coasting on his World Cup winning goodwill rather than any managerial acumen, but he led Frosinone to Serie A in 2023. His subsequent stint at Lyon went really badly—he suffered facial injuries when Marseille fans threw rocks at the Lyon bus and got sacked a month later with les Gones in last place in Ligue 1—but remade his reputation with Sassuolo, leading the Neroverdi back to Serie A and then keeping them comfortably mid-table this year.

As a tactician, he’s favored a 4-3-3, which jives with Fabio Paratici’s recruitment tendencies. Looking at his Sassuolo sides, he’s brought the best out of wingers Domenico Berardi, Armand Laurienté, and Cristian Volpato. He favors a lower block and less pressing, preferring his defense to maintain its shape and frustrate opponents in order to create opportunities on the break.

He seems like a decent fit for Fiorentina, too. He’s a solid, relatively young coach whose status within Italy as a legend should buy him some goodwill from the fans while the club rebuilds itself from the ground up. I’ll do more analysis on his tactical fit if and when he’s confirmed as the new mister (or rather 23 days after, given the record of ex-Sion managers in Florence). For now, though, it’s good to see Paratici doing this work early, allowing him time to get on the same page with Grosso and determine the short- and mid-term transfer targets.