Report: Fiorentina pick Daniele de Rossi as next coach

As if we hadn’t had enough crazy news about Fiorentina today, here’s a bit to put your head in the blender. According to Fabrizio Romano, the Viola have picked Daniele de Rossi as their next coach. Yes, that Daniele de Rossi. And yes, this is as bonkers as you think it is.

The club haven’t confirmed anything yet, but holy smokes is this wild. De Rossi just retired from playing in January and has reportedly been taking his coaching courses. He has zero experience as a manager, although he did supposedly get an offer from Serie C outfit Sambennettedese earlier this year. The jump up to the first tier with the Viola represents a much stiffer challenge.

Current Fiorentina boss Giuseppe Iachini is a lock to be replaced before next year, but the conventional wisdom had a more experienced tactician taking the post. If this is true (and there’s no confirmation on the Viola end), it could seriously undermine his work as the club tries to avoid relegation; de Rossi can’t be appointed as the manager since the Viola have already sacked Vincenzo Montella this year and won’t be allowed to bring in a third outside coach this season.

There’s no way to know if the former AS Roma man would make a good coach, although the recent success of his contemporaries like Gennaro Gattuso, Fabio Liverani, and the Inzaghi brothers has clearly whetted an appetite for players of his generation to take the reins. This could all be idle rumor, but Romano’s usually a reliable source, so brace yourself for another few months of this discussion. It’s certainly a crazy enough story to make you wonder what the heck is happening.