Patrick Vieira Hired As Genoa Coach With Potential Implications For Mario Balotelli

Genoa confirmed Patrick Vieira as its new coach on Wednesday and it remains to be seen what implications that will have for Mario Balotelli, less than a month after former Italy forward joined Serie A club .

Vieira and Balotelli were teammates at Inter Milan and Manchester City but fell out when Vieira was Nice coach, eventually leing to Balotelli moving to Marseille.

48-year-old Vieira previously managed New York City FC in Major League Soccer and went on to coach Crystal Palace and n Strasbourg after leaving Nice.

Genoa announced in a brief statement that it h chosen Vieira to replace Alberto Gilardino, who was surprisingly fired on Tuesday, and that Vieira would take charge of his first training session on Wednesday afternoon.

During a stellar playing career Vieira won 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship with France, as well as three Premier League titles with Arsenal and four Serie A titles with Inter.

Vieira’s first match in charge of Genoa will be at home against Cagliari in Italian league on Sunday. teams are level on points in table, just one point above relegation zone.

Genoa has lost half of its league matches this season but dismissal of Gilardino still came as a surprise as he h appeared to have turned things around, picking up four points from two matches before international break. future also looked more positive with team’s injury problems starting to ease.