With Roma now sitting eighth in Serie A, José Mourinho was fired as manager. The decision was made in response to the 3-1 loss at Milan on Sunday and the Coppa Italia exit in the derby against Lazio on Wednesday.
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The club released a statement saying, “AS Roma can confirm that José Mourinho and his coaching staff will leave the club with immediate effect.” “More information about the new first-team coaching staff will be released soon.”
Roma’s favored candidate to succeed Mourinho is Daniele De Rossi, with whom negotiations have already begun. Between 2001 and 2019, De Rossi participated in more than 600 games for the team.
The former midfield player’s lone managerial experience came from a brief stay in Serie B with SPAL, which ended in February of last year. However, he has held age-group positions in the Italian Football Federation and coached Italy under Roberto Mancini.
After taking over as manager of Roma in 2021, Mourinho guided the team to their first trophy in 14 years in 2022 when they won the Europa Conference League.
He also advanced to the Europa League final the previous season, where Sevilla defeated him on penalties.
Roma has only defeated Juventus and defeated Cremonese in their last five games, with the only victory coming against the latter in the Coppa Italia.
Mourinho leaves the team, which finished second in their group behind Slavia Prague and will face Feyenoord in a Europa League last-32 match the following month.
During his two complete Serie A seasons at Roma, Mourinho placed sixth in both of them. This month, the 61-year-old manager of Chelsea, Real Madrid, and Manchester United departs with the team five points behind fourth-place Fiorentina and 22 points behind leaders Inter.
Although Dan and Ryan Friedkin, the owners of Roma, expressed gratitude to Mourinho “for his passion and efforts,” they also stated, “We believe that an immediate change is in the best interests of the club.”