Koni de Winter, a 22-year-old Belgian defender playing for Genoa, scored his first goal in Serie A on Sunday against AS Roma, in added time (final score 1-1). And this big debut for him caused a lot of damage in the Italian capital. At the time, he derailed Daniele De Rossi, who was sent off in the process by the match referee. And afterwards, he also derailed Daniele De Rossi’s coaching career, since the latter was sacked this Wednesday morning, to everyone’s surprise.
Of course, the club of the Louve has not yet won in Serie A after 4 days, with 1 defeat and 3 draws, but the haste of the American management, namely the Friedkin family who have owned the club since 2020, has surprised everyone in Italy. Daniele De Rossi had been appointed in January 2024 to succeed José Mourinho, whose dismissal had already surprised. The former Roma midfielder managed to get things back on track, finishing 6th in Serie A and failing in the semi-final of the Europa League against Leverkusen. Nothing dishonorable, on the contrary, he was even extended last June, committing until 2027!
No respect for the club legend
De Rossi was involved in the recruitment, since he regularly exchanged with the new sporting director, Florent Ghisolfi. And AS Roma had given itself the means during the off-season, spending nearly €100 million to bring in Artem Dovbyk, Matias Soulé, Enzo Le Fée, Angeliño and others. All while keeping Paulo Dybala, Leandro Paredes and Lorenzo Pellegrini. This is paradoxically one of the reasons for this sudden choice, the desire not to waste any more time and to change things quickly so as not to be irremediably dropped.
The first reactions are in any case quite strong among the supporters, who do not understand the Friedkin strategy and who see one of the club’s legends, who has 616 appearances in the Roman jersey, leaving with his head bowed. Atalanta coach Gianpiero Gasperini has already given his support to his colleague. “I feel sorry for De Rossi. I wish him the best because I love him. This news surprised me because the season started with difficulties for many teams, because of the transfer market and the absurd dates that put coaches in difficulty. It doesn’t work like that in football, where you sign players and create teams, you play games where you score a goal in the 95th minute and you only look at the result. It’s a season that started in a strange way and then I really like De Rossi as a person and as a coach, also for what he did with Roma last year.” To replace him, the first names mentioned lead to Ivan Juric, Thomas Tuchel or Edin Terzic. They are already warned, with the Friedkins, the axe falls abruptly.
