Struggling Serie A side Napoli fired Walter Mazzarri on Monday and quickly hired Slovakia coach Francesco Calzona just two days before their match against Barcelona in the Champions League.
Mazzarri, 62 years old, is the second coach to be let go this season by the struggling Italian champions. He took over in November after Rudi Garcia was fired, but Napoli has since dropped to ninth place in Serie A.
They will face Barcelona in the first leg of the last 16 at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Wednesday.
“I thank Walter Mazzarri, a friend of the De Laurentiis family and Napoli, for having helped the team in a tricky period,” said Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis on X, formerly Twitter.
De Laurentiis has confirmed that Calzona has been hired until the end of the season and will be in charge on Wednesday night.
“It’s always painful to sack a friend,” said De Laurentiis in a short interview with Sky Sport.
“But we need to consider that in Naples, you have to give Napoli fans something extra. Now we’re going to try to do that with Francesco Calzona.”
Calzona led Slovakia to Euro 2024 but faces a big challenge as he returns to Napoli, where he previously worked as an assistant under Maurizio Sarri and during Luciano Spalletti’s first season without any trophies.
The 55-year-old is expected to continue his role with Slovakia while also trying to help Napoli improve their position in the table following Mazzarri’s disappointing second stint as coach of the club.
Mazzarri played a key role in Napoli’s success between 2009 and 2013, including winning the 2012 Italian Cup by defeating undefeated league champions Juventus in the final, marking the club’s first trophy in over twenty years.
Mazzarri departed in May 2013 after leading a team to a second-place finish in Italy’s top league.
The team included players like Ezequiel Lavezzi, Marek Hamsik, and Edinson Cavani in the attack. However, his recent three months with the team have been less successful.
The team, which won the league title last season, has struggled under Mazzarri’s leadership. Chaos has ensued in Naples since the departure of title-winning coach Spalletti.
Napoli is currently 27 points behind league leaders Inter Milan, having won only four out of 12 league matches under Mazzarri’s management, earning a total of 15 points.
Garcia only managed to get 21 points from his 12 league matches in charge, which had Napoli in fourth place when he was fired.
Napoli’s chances of qualifying for the revamped Champions League next season are very slim, even if Italy secures a fifth spot.
Napoli is currently nine points behind both fourth-placed Atalanta and fifth-placed Bologna, and they have struggled to close that gap, failing to score in nine of Mazzarri’s matches in all competitions.
After facing Barcelona, Calzona will have an easier start in Serie A with matches against relegation-threatened Cagliari and Sassuolo.
