Fiorentina fires Stefano Pioli with the club winless through 10 rounds of Serie A

FLORENCE, Italy (AP) – Stefano Pioli was fired by Fiorentina on Tuesday with the Viola winless through 10 rounds and at the bottom of Serie A.

The move came two days after a 1-0 loss at home to Lecce deepened the Tuscan squad’s crisis.

Fiorentina is last on the table, one point behind Hellas Verona, and has just four points from four draws – to go with six defeats.

“Fiorentina can confirm that Stefano Pioli has been relieved of his duties as head coach of the first team,” the club said. “Daniele Galloppa will take charge of the first team temporarily, starting from this afternoon’s training session.”

Pioli’s firing follows an announcement on Saturday that Fiorentina terminated the contract of sporting director Daniele Prade by mutual consent.

Pioli was hired when previous Fiorentina coach Raffaele Palladino unexpectedly left after guiding the club to a sixth-place finish last season.

Fiorentina has done well in Europe recently, finishing runner-up in consecutive Conference League finals followed by reaching the semifinals last season.

Through two matches of this season’s Conference League, Fiorentina tops the table. The Viola next visit Mainz on Thursday.

Fiorentina’s next Italian league game is at Genoa on Sunday.

Pioli led AC Milan to the Serie A title in 2022 then coached Cristiano Ronaldo at Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia before joining Fiorentina.

It’s the third coaching change in Serie A this season after Luciano Spalletti replaced Igor Tudor at Juventus and Patrick Vieira left Genoa.