Official: Juventus appoint former Italy head coach Spalletti

Juventus have officially announced the appointment of former Italy CT Luciano Spalletti as the club’s new head coach following the dismissal of Igor Tudor at the beginning of this week. 

Spalletti, who had always been Juventus’s first-choice candidate to replace Tudor, has put pen to paper on a short-term contract until the end of the 2025-26 season with an option to extend if the Bianconeri qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Recent reports indicate that Spalletti will earn a salary of around €3m until the end of the 2025-26 campaign. 

Juventus took the decision to dismiss Tudor after just eight league matches of the 2025-26 campaign, and in doing so, became the first club in Serie A to pull the rug on their head coach this campaign. 

The Old Lady had gone eight matches without a win in all competitions, their most recent coming in a 4-3 victory over Inter on September 13, and had not scored in any of Tudor’s last four matches in charge. The team had also lost three games in a row at the end of Tudor’s tenure. 

There had also been reports that Tudor did not see eye to eye with a number of Juve’s directors, including general manager Damien Comolli. 

Outlets in Italy claim that the two didn’t agree on transfer decisions over the summer, that they did not agree over the appointment of Director of Performance Darren Burgess, and that the club were not keen on Tudor’s style of communication, particularly in the press. 

“Luciano Spalletti is the new head coach of Juventus, signing an agreement with the Club until June 30, 2026,” read a statement.

“Born in Certaldo, in the province of Florence, in 1959, Spalletti began his coaching career 30 years ago after playing for Spezia and Empoli, among others. He began his coaching career at the Tuscan club, winning the Serie C Coppa Italia before leading the club to Serie A promotion, establishing himself as one of the most innovative coaches in Italy.

“He enjoyed an impressive tenure with Udinese in the early 2000s, securing three consecutive years of European competition qualification before – in the 2004/05 season – guiding the Friuli club to their first-ever Champions League qualification berth, which then took him to Roma for the next four seasons, where he lifted two Coppa Italia trophies as well as the Supercoppa Italiana.

“From 2009 to 2014, Spalletti managed Zenit St. Petersburg, winning two league titles, a domestic cup as well as the Russian Super Cup, before returning to Italy to take charge of Roma and then Inter. After winning the Serie A title at the end of the 2022/23 season with Napoli, the Tuscan coach then served as head coach of the Italian national team until June this year.

“We are delighted to welcome a coach with such expertise and experience to the Bianconeri family: welcome to Juventus and good luck, coach!”

Most recently, Spalletti has served as head coach of the Italy national team, but was dismissed at the beginning of the summer following a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Norway in World Cup qualification, which made it near-on impossible to finish the qualifying campaign at the top of the group. 

Italy had an encouraging Nations League campaign under Spalletti, but had also massively underwhelmed at EURO 2024, crashing out at the round of 16 after a lacklustre performance against Switzerland. 

Before then, in his most recent Serie A job, Spalletti had a considerably more positive experience in charge of Napoli, where he won the Serie A title for the first time in his career in 2022-23. He delivered an average of 2.1 points per game during his three seasons with the Partenopei. 

Spalletti is also one of the most experienced Serie A coaches around, with well over 500 matches in the top flight under his belt from his spells with Udinese, Roma, Inter and Napoli.