ShareMILAN: Igor Tudor will be Juventus coach next season, the Serie A club’s new general manager Damien Comolli confirmed on Tuesday, after failing to snatch Antonio Conte from Serie A champions Napoli. “Igor Tudor will be our coach for the 2025/26 season. We’re working together, and I want to reiterate that he will be our coach next season,” Comolli told reporters during a press conference.
Juve had pushed to bring back club icon Conte, who won three straight league titles as coach of the Turin giants between 2011 and 2014. But Conte decided to stay at Napoli and defend the Scudetto, leading to Juve to decide to stick with Tudor who replaced sacked Thiago Motta in March and guided the club to next season’s Champions League.
Tudor will lead Juve at the upcoming Club World Cup in the USA where the Italians face Al Ain, Wydad AC and Manchester City in the group stage. Also taking part in the Club World Cup with Juve will be Comolli’s fellow Frenchman Randal Kolo Muani, whose loan from Paris Saint-Germain has been extended for the length of the tournament.
Comolli added that Juve were hoping to extend Kolo Muani’s stay for next season after a promising spell in Italy since arriving in January from PSG where he was frozen out by Luis Enrique. “We don’t have an agreement with PSG but I’m optimistic,” said Comolli.
Meanwhile, Manchester City on Tuesday confirmed the appointment of two former Liverpool coaches to Pep Guardiola’s backroom staff, including Jurgen Klopp’s ex-assistant Pepijn Lijnders. The Dutchman arrives at the Etihad Stadium alongside a new set-piece coach, James French, who has spent the past 13 years at Anfield. The appointments follow the departures of three members of Guardiola’s backroom staff.
Lijnders, 42, worked under Brendan Rodgers and Klopp at Liverpool. He left the club along with Klopp at the end of the 2023/24 season and took up the post of head coach at Red Bull Salzburg but was sacked in December.
City director of football Hugo Viana said: “Pepijn and James have each amassed huge experience working in their individual roles over the past few years. “Their talent, application, work ethic and all-round commitment are totally aligned with the values that underpin how Pep wants football to be played.”
Guardiola’s team endured a disappointing 2024/25 campaign, finishing third in the Premier League and failing to win a trophy for the first time in eight years. They will travel to the expanded 32-team Club World Cup in the United States as defending champions after winning the competition under its previous guise in Saudi Arabia two years ago. The month-long tournament starts on June 14, with City opening their campaign against Moroccan club Wydad Casablanca in Philadelphia four days later. – AFP
