The technical area of Bari starts again with Giuseppe Magalini and Valerio Di Cesare. After two weeks of reflections, surveys and interviews, the choice to take over the tasks and role of Ciro Polito, holder of the sporting director’s chair from June 2021 until a few days ago , fell on the 62-year-old originally from Villafranca di Verona. He will sign a two-year contract with renewal options linked to results and was chosen at the end of a casting that included various profiles: from Guido Angelozzi, who then remained in Frosinone, to Roberto Gemmi, who moved from Cosenza to Empoli, up to chats who remained that way like the one with Matteo Lovisa, sporting director who contributed to Juve Stabia’s return to the Serie B championship at just 28 years old.
In his long career as sporting director, Magalini has gained experience in Serie C with teams such as Reggiana, Vicenza, Alessandria, Viterbese, Mantova, Grosseto and Cremonese. There are three promotions obtained in his career: the most recent is the one with Catanzaro a year ago, with the Calabrians then capable of confirming themselves in Serie B up to fifth place and the playoff semi-final, but Magalini took the lift to the championship cadet also at the time of Vicenza and Mantua. Precisely in the city of Virgilio, in the two-year period 2006-2008, the manager worked with Valerio Di Cesare, at the time a central defender in the first years of his career in Serie B. Sixteen years later, the two will meet again as neighbors. Di Cesare, who at the beginning of next week will announce his painful farewell to football after playing over 500 games, 235 of these with the Bari shirt, is already working as a manager. He will be deputy Magalini but will have an operational role, as the director’s right-hand man.
It will be up to this managerial couple to establish the name of the new Bari coach in a few days. Vincenzo Vivarini, with Magalini in Catanzaro in the last two years and already in the red and white in the 2019/20 season, that of the promotion to C lost only in the playoff final in Reggio Emilia, after 27 useful results in a row, would appear to be an ideal profile on paper. However, Catanzaro is not willing to release the Abruzzo coach, who is under contract until 2025 and is also being explored in Serie A by Venezia and Udinese. So there are other names under consideration, with the former Lecce player Roberto D’Aversa – also evaluated by Venezia and Cesena – and the former Salernitana player Pippo Inzaghi – also pressured by Pisa – on the preference podium. The certainty is that next week at Bari will be the week of announcements.
