Vincenzo Italiano left Bologna after two successful seasons
Vincenzo Italiano is no longer the coach of Bologna. On Thursday, May 28, 2026, the club announced that an agreement had been reached with the 48-year-old specialist on the consensual termination of his contract, bringing to an end a period in the club's history marked by the return of a trophy after more than half a century of waiting. According to Bologna's announcement, Italiano informed the management that he believes his cycle at the club has ended after two seasons with very good results. The club also stressed that the decision was made independently of any future professional opportunity, although Italian media in recent days have linked him with Napoli after the departure of Antonio Conte.
The termination of the contract is particularly significant because Italiano was tied to Bologna until June 30, 2027. In May 2025, Bologna announced the extension of the cooperation after the coach led the team to winning the Coppa Italia, the club's first major trophy after 51 years. In the new announcement, the club referred precisely to winning the Coppa Italia on May 14, 2025, as a moment that, according to the club statement, will remain part of Bologna's history. This gave the coach's departure additional weight because it does not come after a collapse in results, but after a cycle in which the club stabilized its competitive level and once again gained broader prestige in Italian football.
The club confirmed a consensual termination, but not the coach's new club
Bologna was brief and measured in its official announcement. According to the club statement, the consensual termination of the contract was agreed with Vincenzo Italiano, and the organization thanked him for the passion and dedication with which he carried out his work in recent years. The club also emphasized that it sends its best wishes to him and his coaching staff for the continuation of their careers. The announcement does not state where Italiano will go, nor does it mention Napoli, which means that his next engagement, according to officially available information, has not yet been confirmed.
Italian football media had already written before the termination that Napoli was among the clubs monitoring the situation around Italiano. Football Italia, citing Italian sources, reported that after the departure of Antonio Conte, Napoli turned its attention toward the Bologna coach, while other sources stated that Italiano had previously been considered in Naples during earlier periods of coaching changes as well. Such information for now remains in the sphere of market indications and media reports, because neither Napoli nor Italiano has officially announced an agreement on a new engagement. At this moment, it has only been officially confirmed that the cooperation with Bologna has ended.
Caution in wording is also important because Bologna, in its announcement, specifically emphasized that Italiano presented the decision as the end of a cycle, not as a direct consequence of any concrete offer. Such wording allows the club to present the departure as the planned end of one stage, while leaving the coach room to continue negotiations with other environments without additional public pressure. In practice, however, the end of the cooperation opens one of the more important questions of the Italian transition period: who will lead Napoli after Conte and how will Bologna replace the coach who brought it a historic trophy.
Napoli is looking for a new coach after Conte's departure
The context of Italiano's departure cannot be separated from the changes at Napoli. According to available reports, Antonio Conte left the Napoli bench after the end of the 2025/2026 season, in which the team finished second in Serie A. Napoli's official website still contains the information that Conte signed a contract in June 2024 until June 30, 2027, but after the end of the season Italian and international media reported his departure. Napoli ended the season with a victory against Udinese on May 24, 2026, but Inter had already secured the championship title.
According to the official Serie A table, Inter finished the season in first place with 87 points, while Napoli was second with 76 points. Roma and Como occupied the remaining places leading to the Champions League, while Bologna finished eighth with 56 points. These data show that Napoli, despite the coach's departure, is in a strong competitive position, but also that the new coaching staff will take over a team from which continuity at the top is expected. For a club that has gone through major changes on the bench in previous seasons, the choice of a new coach is once again a strategic issue, not merely an administrative decision.
Napoli had high expectations under Conte, especially after the experienced coach arrived with the reputation of a specialist who quickly shapes competitive teams. According to Napoli's official announcement from 2024, president Aurelio De Laurentiis at the time presented Conte's arrival as an important step for the club. His departure after two seasons therefore once again opens the question of the direction of the project, transfer policy and the relationship between the sporting sector and the coach. In such an environment, Italiano is being mentioned in the media as a profile who could bring organized play, intensity and work with a team that already has the quality for the top of Serie A.
Why Italiano is interesting to bigger clubs
Vincenzo Italiano has built a reputation as a coach who insists on a clear structure of play, active possession and an aggressive approach in the phase without the ball. Before Bologna, he led Trapani, Spezia and Fiorentina, and he particularly stood out during his period in Florence, where he led Fiorentina to two consecutive Conference League finals. Although those finals did not end with the winning of a European trophy, they showed his ability to keep a team competitive across multiple competitions and to bring a club of a middle financial range to international visibility.
At Bologna, he took on a sensitive task after a period in which the club had already raised expectations. According to the official announcement from June 2024, Bologna appointed him coach of the first team with a contract until June 30, 2026, and a year later extended his contract until 2027. Such a sequence of events showed that the club saw him as a longer-term solution. Still, football dynamics often change faster than contractual plans, and the end of the cycle after two seasons confirms how quickly the coaching market in Serie A is developing.
Winning the Coppa Italia was the key point of his stay in Bologna. On May 14, 2025, Bologna defeated Milan in the final and won the trophy that the club had waited 51 years for, and it was precisely that result that the club management cited in its farewell announcement. For the coach, it was an argument that he can turn a stable project into concrete success, and for the club confirmation that sporting growth can be achieved even without the budgets of the biggest Italian clubs. For that reason, his departure is not an ordinary change on the bench, but the end of a period in which Bologna once again profiled itself as an ambitious first-division club.
Bologna faces an important decision
Bologna now faces the search for a new coach, and at a moment when expectations are no longer the same as before Italiano's arrival. The team finished the season in eighth place in Serie A, with 16 wins, 8 draws and 14 defeats, according to the league's official table. Such a placement does not bring the same European momentum as the historic trophy from the previous season, but it shows that the club retained the status of a stable team in the upper part of the table. The management will therefore have to find a solution that can continue sporting continuity, but also respond to the pressure of fans who have become accustomed to more ambitious football.
In recent seasons, Bologna has profiled itself as a club that does not depend only on individual names, but on a broader sporting model. Still, the coach who won a trophy after more than half a century leaves a large professional and symbolic space. The new coach will have to take over a team that knows what it means to play under the pressure of increased expectations, but also a dressing room that is used to clear requirements in the organization of play. This makes the choice of successor sensitive, especially if the club wants to avoid the impression that Italiano's departure also ended its ambitious phase.
The timing in the calendar is also important. The termination was confirmed on May 28, after the end of the championship, which gives the management time to prepare for the summer transfer window and the start of preparations. Still, competition in the coaching market is strong, especially in Italy, where several clubs are considering changes after the end of the season. Bologna will therefore have to quickly align its sporting goals, budget and the profile of a specialist who can continue working with the existing squad or participate in its reconstruction.
The coaching rotation in Serie A is once again in the foreground
Italiano's departure from Bologna and the changes at Napoli are part of a broader coaching dynamic in Serie A. The end of the 2025/2026 season brought a clear hierarchy in the table, but also several open questions on the benches of clubs targeting European competitions. Inter won the title, Napoli finished second, Roma third and Como fourth, according to the league's official data. Behind them were Milan and Juventus, clubs with great expectations and constant pressure for results, which further increases the importance of every coaching move on the market.
In such an environment, coaches like Italiano become especially sought after because they combine experience in the Italian championship with proven work in clubs that do not have the largest budgets. His profile can be attractive to clubs that want a clear playing idea, but do not necessarily want to bring in a coach whose model is tied to extremely expensive squads. Napoli, if it decides on such a direction, could try to combine its own ambitions with a coach who has already shown the ability to work in demanding, but financially more controlled projects.
Still, as long as there is no official confirmation of a new engagement, Italiano's future remains open. According to what has been officially announced, only his episode at Bologna has ended, and that by consensual termination of the contract. Napoli presents itself in media reports as a logical possible destination because of the vacant bench and earlier interest, but the final outcome will depend on negotiations, the club's plans and the decision of the coach himself. For Bologna, Napoli and Serie A, days now follow in which the coaching market will be just as important as negotiations around players.
Sources:
- Bologna FC 1909 – official announcement on the consensual termination of the contract with Vincenzo Italiano (link)
- Bologna FC 1909 – official announcement on the extension of Vincenzo Italiano's contract until June 30, 2027 (link)
- Bologna FC 1909 – official announcement on the appointment of Vincenzo Italiano as first-team coach in 2024 (link)
- SSC Napoli – official announcement on the appointment of Antonio Conte as Napoli coach in 2024 (link)
- Lega Serie A – official Serie A Enilive 2025/2026 table (link)
- Football Italia – report on Napoli's interest in Vincenzo Italiano after the departure of Antonio Conte (link)