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epa12094855 Romas coach Claudio Ranieri and Atalanta’s coach Gian Piero Gasperini smile as they pose ahead of the Italian Serie A soccer match between Atalanta BC and AS Roma, in Bergamo, Italy, 12 May 2025. EPA-EFE/MICHELE MARAVIGLIA
Claudio Ranieri’s pre-match comments ahead of Thursday’s win over Pisa have opened a fascinating window into the behind-the-scenes process that led to Gian Piero Gasperini’s appointment as Roma head coach, and the identity of the three who said no before he arrived.
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The first name is beyond doubt: Cesc Fabregas, according to reports from La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Roma pursued the Como coach at length through then-sporting director Florent Ghisolfi, now at Sunderland, who went as far as formally requesting that Como release their coach. The Lombard club’s reluctance to let Fabregas go ultimately proved decisive, and the trail went cold.
The other two who declined were both foreign coaches rather than Italian-based.
Ranieri confirmed in his own remarks that the names on the shortlist were predominantly non-Italian, which rules out figures such as Stefano Pioli, who was working in Saudi Arabia with Al-Nassr at the time, and Francesco Farioli, who Roma did meet but ultimately rejected rather than being turned down by.
“He is young and doing well, he can wait,” was Ranieri’s public verdict on Farioli at the time.
Roma asked for Valverde & Emery before Gasperini move
The remaining two names were Spanish.
Ernesto Valverde was one, with Ranieri famously handing the Athletic Club manager his business card in Bilbao after Roma’s Europa League defeat, a moment he laughed off publicly by claiming he had simply lost Valverde’s number and wanted advice on Spanish players.
The other was Unai Emery, a long-standing favourite at Trigoria who has always been held in high regard by those at the club. Aston Villa, however, offered him considerably stronger prospects than Roma could at that stage, and he stayed put.
As for the remaining names on Ranieri’s list of five or six, the two he described as “very Italian” and of considerable stature both sentimentally and on their CVs, their identities remain unconfirmed.
