Roma have confirmed the appointment of Gian Piero Gasperini as their new coach on a three-year contract.
After nine years with Atalanta, which made him the longest-serving head coach in Serie A, Gasperini has decided to take on a new challenge by accepting Roma’s offer.
The 67-year-old will be contracted to Roma for the next three seasons, having been chosen as the ideal candidate to take over from Claudio Ranieri after a months-long search.
By taking the Roma reins, Gasperini is reuniting with his former Atalanta players Bryan Cristante, Gianluca Mancini and Pierluigi Gollini, as well as his ex-Palermo player Paulo Dybala and his ex-Genoa player Stephan El Shaarawy.
His Atalanta side finished above Roma in the 2024-25 Serie A season, with Gasperini widely credited for transforming La Dea’s fortunes over his tenure. In the time since Atalanta appointed Gasperini, they have accumulated a narrow three more points than Roma. In fact, Gasperini was the only other Serie A coach to defeat Ranieri’s Roma in the second half of the season.
In addition to domestic commitments, Europa League football will be on Roma’s schedule during Gasperini’s debut season. There are believed to be clauses in his contract with bonuses if he gets the club back into the Champions League for the first time since 2018-19 and even if he wins their first Scudetto since 2000-01.
At 67, he is the oldest head coach Roma have ever appointed, except for Ranieri himself and Nils Liedholm when he was summoned again for his fourth and final spell in charge. In other words, Gasperini is Roma’s oldest appointment with no prior connection to the club. If he fulfils his contract, he’ll be a septuagenarian by the end of it.
Roma will be the sixth different club Gasperini has ever coached, after two spells each with Crotone, Genoa and Palermo and one notoriously short-lived stint with Inter, some 14 years ago. While he has established Atalanta as one of Italy’s most competitive sides, this will be his first chance since Inter to inherit a so-called ‘big’ team.
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