Berlin (AP) – FC Valencia is parting ways with head coach José Bordalas after just one season. This was announced by the Spanish first division football team.
With the Spaniard Bordalas (58), the team ended the past La Liga season in ninth place. In the cup final, Valencia narrowly lost to Betis Sevilla on penalties. Bordalas’ contract ran until June 30, 2023.
According to media reports, Gennaro Gattuso will be the new head coach. The 44-year-old former Italy international is set to sign a two-year deal. The 2006 world champion last worked for SSC Napoli from December 2019 to June 2021.
Meanwhile, former Valencia vice-president Miguel Zorio launched a campaign against Gattuso’s signing on social media using the hashtag #NoAGattuso – due to the Italian’s previous derogatory comments about women, gays and black players. On his platform “Marea Valencianista” Zorio published a list of Gattuso’s transgressions and started his campaign against “xenophobia, homophobia and Gattuso’s macho behavior”. Gattuso said, among other things, in 2013: “I just can’t imagine women in football. I don’t like to say it, but that’s the way it is.”
A campaign using the hashtag #NoToGattuso was launched last year when Gattuso was associated with Tottenham Hotspur. There, too, many fans rejected Gattuso because of his earlier statements, an engagement in the Premier League did not materialize.