On the stroke of midnight Franco Colomba was officially fired as coach of Parma as Roberto Donadoni is expected to take over the role as tactician.
The Tardini outfit find themselves lagging in the bottom half of the table and just seven points above the drop zone, where they have suffered heavy defeats with Inter being their latest as they fell 5-0 to the Nerazzurri.
An official announcement read on facparma.com: “Roberto Donadoni is the new coach of Parma Football Club,” it continued. “To our new coach, good luck and biggest wishes to you and your good work.”
The club also confirmed that they had initially asked for former Juventus coach Gigi Del Neri to take over, but he refused as he didn’t want to take control of the side in the middle of the season.
Donadoni comes as a natural choice as he has previously coached the likes of Alessandro and Cristiano Lucarelli, Stefano Morrone and Raffaele Palladino, during his spell at Livorno and it is with his knowledge of the players where he will be hoping to save the Parmigiani from relegation.
The former Azzurri coach will sign a deal which will tie him to the club for a year and a half and has asked to bring in three employees: Mario Bortolazzi (ex-Parma player in the 80s with coach Arrigo Sacchi), Luca Gotti and Giovanni Andreini (trainers), while the goalkeeper will remain Luca Bucci.