Who is Paolo Sammarco, interim coach of Verona after Paolo Zanetti

Verona soccer club: Paolo Sammarco to replace Paolo Zanetti, but only for the time being. The Verona club, after having exonerated its coach on Monday, has replaced him with the current leader of the Gialloblù Primavera team, but only on an interim basis. In any case, he will be the one who will appear on the bench against Pisa, curiously pitted against another coach in his first Serie A match. His opponent will in fact be Oscar Hiljemark, freshly hired in place of another coach fresh off the bench: Alberto Gilardino.

Marco Enzo Venturini

“Hellas Verona FC – reads the note issued Tuesday by the club – informs that the technical guidance of the First Team will be entrusted on an interim basis to coach Paolo Sammarco. The club extends to coach Paolo Sammarco warm good luck and wishes him good work”. The newly appointed interim coach of the Scaligeri, born in Como on March 17, 1983, boasts a long career as a footballer. As a midfielder, he wore the jerseys of Sampdoria, Udinese, Cesena and Frosinone (the latter in both Serie B and A), among others. Impossible to forget, however, his record at Chievo, which made his Serie A debut and where he returned later in his career.

It should be noted that Sammarco, in addition to that of Chievo, has also worn the jersey of the city&#8217s other team. That was Virtus Verona, for whom he played in 2019-2020 in Serie C, a year before his last season as a player in D at Arzignano Valchiampo. As early as 2022 the’arrival at Hellas, as coach of the Under 18 and then the Primavera. Meanwhile, names are circulating of those who could take his place, inheriting the bench left empty by Zanetti. Among the possible replacements are the names of Roberto D’Aversa, currently favored, and Luca Gotti, without a team since 2024 after his farewell to Lecce.

“The coach is in crisis. Like everyone, like me, like the players. But it is normal that at this moment we have to understand if we are able to get up again or not. Today is not so much the time to talk. Right I came. It would not make sense if a player or a coach had come. At this moment I do not find it useful”, Sean Sogliano, Verona’s sporting director, had said after the 4-0 loss to Cagliari.

“Let“s not forget that Verona in these last four years has been saved once on the last day, once in the play-off and once in the penultimate. So we know that in these four years we have gone through many bad moments” Sogliano had added before Zanetti&#8217s exoneration. And the momentary promotion of Sammarco.