Vincenzo Montella Appointed as Sampdoria’s New Head Coach

Former Fiorentina coach, Vincenzo Montella, has just completed his deal with Sampdoria, after the dismissal of Walter Zenga. The 41-year old Montella is on a contract with the Blucerchiati until the end of June, 2018.

The news were announced this past Sunday, when Sampdoria’s president, Massimo Ferrero, shared on his twitter account “Good morning, Italy! Ferrero scored a goal and a star has arrived, Vincenzo Montella!”. Later on, an official statement was also published at Sampdoria’s official website.

Montella will work with coaches Nicola Caccia and Riccardo Manno, Blucerchiati’s assistant manager Daniele Russo and analysts Simone Montanaro and Cristian Savoia.

This is Montella’s forth position as a head coach. He helped his former team, Fiorentina, reach the semi-finals at the 2014/2015 UEFA Europa League, as they managed to finish the season at forth place.

This summer, Montella parted ways with Fiorentina, after Paulo Sousa was appointed as his successor. He was dropped on the 8th of June and hasn’t made an appearance at La Viola since then. Despite that, Montella remained under contact with Fiorentina, as the latter demanded a fee of €5 million for his release.

However, Fiorentina then decided to drop this clause from Montella’s contract. The retired Italian footballer has also coached major Serie A teams Roma and Catania and had two spells at Sampdoria as a player.

Montella’s predecessor, Zenga, only coached Samphoria for half a season and was dropped last Tuesday, after winning only one game out of seven. The straw that broke the camel’s back, was their suffering a major defeat from Serbian team Vojvodina in the Europa League qualifiers.

The final decision to part with Zenga, was reached when the Blucerchiati lost to Fiorentina with 2 to 0. Thus, the Blucerchiati are currently at tenth place in the Serie A table, eleven points behind their rivals Fiorentina, but are expected to make a comeback with Montella’s help.

This will be Montella’s third return to the Genoa-based team. In 1996, he joined Sampdoria as a striker, but three-years later was transferred to Roma. During the 2007-2008 season, Montella was again loaned to the Blucerchiati for a short period of time.

The tactician announced in front of Samp TV, he was pleased with his return to Sampdoria. “It’s like being young again”, he shared.

Montello is to make his first appearance as Samp’s coach this following Sunday in an away game against Udinese.