Gennaro Gattuso Leaves Serie A Side Fiorentina 23 Days After His Appointment As Manager

FLORENCE, ITALY – MAY 16: Gennaro Gattuso manager of SSC Napoli gestures during the Serie A match … [+] between ACF Fiorentina and SSC Napoli at Stadio Artemio Franchi on May 16, 2021 in Florence, Italy. (Photo by Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images)

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Gennaro Gattuso will no longer be coaching ACF Fiorentina during the upcoming 2021/22 Serie A season.

The Italian manager and the Florence-based club have decided to part ways just 23 days following Gattuso’s appointment as the new head coach.

“ACF Fiorentina and Mister Rino Gattuso, by mutual agreement, have decided not to follow up on the previous agreements and therefore not to start the next football season together,” reads the club’s official statement.

On May 25, a few days after the end of the 2020/21 Serie A season, Gattuso was announced as Fiorentina’s new manager. He was set to take over as the new Viola boss following his two-year stint at SSC Napoli.

Rocco Commisso, the CEO of cable television provider Mediacom and Fiorentina’s owner since June 2019, expressed great enthusiasm for the new manager at the time of the appointment.

“I’m convinced that Gattuso – who is a young coach but already has lots of experience – will help us to progress. His professional and personal background shows that he will bring determination, competence and desire to our club,” read a statement by Commisso published on Fiorentina’s official website on May 25.

Gattuso initially agreed to sign a two-year deal with Fiorentina on a €2.5 million ($3 million) annual salary, according to Repubblica. The deal included an option to extend the contract for another year into the 2023/24 Serie A season.

MADRID, SPAIN – OCTOBER 13: Real Madrid football player Cristiano Ronaldo (L) and Jorge Mendes … [+] attend the award ceremony to present Cristiano Ronaldo with his fourth Golden Boot Award as highest goal scorer of the European leagues on October 13, 2015 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Europa Press/Europa Press via Getty Images)

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The biggest reason behind Gattuso’s early contract resolution has to do with disagreements related to transfer market plans, Sky Sports and Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport reported today.

The dispute involves Gestifute, the Portuguese company founded by one of the most famous soccer agents, Jorge Mendes, who ranks third on Forbes’ Sports Agents 2020.

Gestifute, who provides agency services to very prominent names in soccer like Cristiano Ronaldo, David de Gea and José Mourinho, also represents Gattuso and two of the players that he aimed to bring to Florence, precisely Porto’s midfielder Sérgio Oliveira and Valencia’s winger Gonçalo Guedes.

Sky Sport reports that Fiorentina were not willing to disburse the requested transfer fees to sign Oliveira and Guedes, which they deemed too high.

This caused the relationship between the club and Gattuso’s agency to strain to the point that the two parties believed it would be better not to undertake the upcoming Serie A campaign together.

Fiorentina’s owner, Italian American billionaire businessman Rocco Commisso (R) and his son US … [+] businessman Joseph Commisso attend the Italian Cup (Coppa Italia) round of sixteen football match Fiorentina vs Inter Milan on January 13, 2021 at the Artemio-Franchi stadium in Florence. (Photo by Vincenzo PINTO / AFP) (Photo by VINCENZO PINTO/AFP via Getty Images)

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Fiorentina are now searching for a new head coach.

Several names have already been linked to the Viola in recent hours, and among the potential choices are Italian managers Claudio Ranieri, most recently at the helm of Serie A side Sampdoria, and Walter Mazzarri.

French head coach Rudi Garcia, who knows very well Italian soccer from his three-year stint on the touchline of AS Roma, has also come up as a possible replacement for Gattuso.