Soccer: Reja takes Lazio bench
Ballardini 12th coach to get sacked this season
10 February, 18:57
(ANSA) - Rome, February 10 - Lazio on Wednesday sacked coach Davide Ballardini and called in Edy Reja in the hope he can pull the Rome club out of the relegation zone.
Ballardini was the 12th Serie A coach to be sacked this season while Reja is the fifth coach to sit on the Lazio bench since the summer of 2004, when the club was acquired by businessman Claudio Lotito.
Reja, a former Napoli coach, was able to come to Rome after obtaining a release from his contract with Hajduk Split, Croatia.
Speaking at his presentation, Reja said "I'm glad I've taken this job. I know the players well and they're good. This team deserves better".
Ballardini joined Lazio at the start of this season after stints at Palermo and Cagliari. Under his direction Lazio, holders of the Italian Cup, got off to a great start by winning the Super Cup, beating Serie A champions Inter Milan, and the first two season matches.
The Rome side then stalled with a string of losses and the writing was on the wall for Ballardini after Lazio lost at home on Sunday against Cagliari and fell to third from last place, firmly in the relegation zone. Other bench changes this season saw former AC Milan manager Alberto Zaccheroni replace Ciro Ferrara as Juventus coach, while in December Udinese fired Pasquale Marino and hired ex-Torino manager Gianni De Biasi.
Earlier that month Catania sacked Gianluca Atzori and brought in former Bologna coach Sinisa Mihajlovic while two heads fell on November 23.
Ex-Lazio coach Delio Rossi replaced Walter Zenga at Palermo and former Parma manager Alberto Malesani came in for Marco Baroni at Siena in their second change of leadership that month.
Former youth team coach Baroni had been in the job for less than a month, coming in for Marco Giampaolo on October 29.
Before that, on October 20, Bologna replaced Giuseppe Papadopulo with former Napoli and Cagliari coach Franco Colomba.
A day before, then bottom club Livorno brought in ex-Perugia coach Serse Cosmi in place of joint coaches Vittorio Russo and Gennaro Ruotolo.
AS Roma, Atalanta and Napoli are the other clubs to have seen heads roll.
Luciano Spalletti was replaced at AS Roma by Claudio Ranieri; Angelo Gregucci got the push at Atalanta on Day Four and was replaced by Antonio Conte; and former Italy manager Roberto Donadoni fell in favour of Walter Mazzari after Napoli's seventh game.
Spalletti recently signed for former Russian and UEFA Cup champions Zenit St Petersburg.
photo: Edy Reja
