For several weeks, the Roman community on X (formerly Twitter) has had eyes only for Florent Ghisolfi, already considered the great savior of AS Roma, the conductor, the master of the project, capable of putting the Giallorossi back at the top of Italy, while the tifosi have been chasing a national title since the Coppa won in 2008 and the Scudetto gleaned in 2001. Coveted for several months by the Roman She-Wolf to replace Tiago Pinto and take charge of the new sporting project with Daniele De Rossi and thus turn the page on José Mourinho, the French sporting director, Florent Ghisolfi, was officially appointed the new sporting director of the Giallorossi last May: “AS Roma is pleased to announce that Florent Ghisolfi will join the Club as Head of Technical Affairs. A former professional footballer, Ghisolfi began his career as a coach in various French clubs and then established himself as a manager (…). In 2022, he joined Nice as Sporting Director, making a decisive contribution to the development of the first team and its return to European football. The Club welcomes Ghisolfi to Rome and wishes him good luck in his work.”
And it didn’t take long for the Aubagne native to win the hearts of the Romans.GhisolYes” wrote the newspaper. The Romanist Last May, a few hours after the official announcement of the arrival of Florent Ghisolfi as the new sporting director of Roma, who arrived in the Italian capital with great discretion. Observers and journalists were quickly impressed by the 39-year-old French manager. His first decision was to go to Trigoria, to the centro sportivo Fulvio Bernardini, to meet Daniele De Rossi, his staff, but also the team. After a brief return to France one weekend, he quickly returned to the capital the following week to start the market movements. And one thing is certain: the former manager of RC Lens and OGC Nice has not been idle and has made major transactions in a short time. Not to mention the work with young people by promoting Niccolò Pisilli and João Costa.
Big hits in the summer transfer window
While the big Italian clubs like Juventus, Inter Milan, Atalanta and Napoli were also carrying out solid negotiations to strengthen their squad, Florent Ghisolfi’s AS Roma was moving forward in the shadows and struck a major blow by attracting French midfielder Enzo Le Fée from Stade Rennais for 23 million euros. Using its French network in Ligue 1 seemed like an obvious choice: “Enzo is happy to come to Rome. I think you are here to welcome him. You will see that his arrival will be a very very good thing for Roma. I leave you, I leave you can welcome him“, declared the French manager at the airport in front of the journalists present for the arrival of the former Rennes and Lorient player. But Ghisolfi did not stop there since after having locked down a few discreet signings like the Swedish full-back Samuel Dahl and the Australian goalkeeper Mathew Ryan, he worked hard for two key players, in high demand in this summer transfer window. Indeed, while English teams were eyeing him, AS Roma managed to win the big battle for the young Argentinian nugget from Juventus, Matías Soulé.
For 25.60 million euros, the Giallorossi have considerably strengthened their offensive lines with Soulé, after the departures of Romelu Lukaku, Andrea Belotti, Sardar Azmoun and Houssem Aouar. Beyond this huge arrival, the excitement surrounding it is worth noting. As he was heading to Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicino airport, a large group of Roman supporters followed Florent Ghisolfi to thank him, hug him, congratulate him, sing to his glory… Strong images in a country where ultra groups often oppose their leadership. In the space of a few weeks and a handful of clever signings, Ghisolfi has earned the status of untouchable emperor of Rome. And as if that were not enough, Florent Ghisolfi is about to pull off the big coup Artem Dovbyk, Ukrainian striker top scorer in La Liga last season with Girona, and at one time coveted by Atlético. A nice coup in perspective signed by the hand of the French manager.
