Tottenham Hotspur’s co-sporting director Fabio Paratici is set to complete a move to Fiorentina once the January window has closed. Paratici is just a few months into his second spell in north London – after previously working under Daniel Levy as sporting director.
In that time, he signed many notable players, including the likes of Destiny Udogie and Dejan Kulusevski. But the Athletic is reporting that Paratici is to continue his role at Spurs until the window closes at 7pm on Monday, January 2, before moving to Fiorentina to head up their football operations.
The report also claims that personal reasons are believed to be a factor in the timing of Paratici’s decision to leave Spurs so soon after his return. Paratici was banned from football in 2023 for 30 months – following the Plusvalenza investigation – which looked into the overvaluation of players from his time at Juventus.
While he appealed the decision, the ban was imposed worldwide by FIFA, which led to his Spurs resignation in 2023. He then returned to the club in October, working with Johan Lange as co-sporting director.
Speaking at the start of this month, under-fire Spurs boss Thomas Frank insisted that Paratici remains fully active in his role as co-sporting director and is working 'very, very hard' to make signings. He said: "Fabio is Tottenham sporting director. I spoke to him twice yesterday. He is working very hard for Tottenham.
"I just know when I speak to Fabio, who I spoke to twice yesterday, and Johan, who I spoke to this morning, the two of them are working very, very hard."
Spurs were dumped out of the FA Cup by Aston Villa on Saturday night, and Frank finds himself under pressure to save his job. Frank had endured a nightmare week after he inadvertently used a coffee cup with the logo of Spurs’ rivals Arsenal on before a 3-2 loss at Bournemouth on Wednesday, and first-half goals by Villa duo Emiliano Buendia and Morgan Rogers denied him a much-needed cup run.
And Frank admitted: "We are all hurt. There is nothing we want to do more than to get through to the next round, no matter who we face. We play at home, we had a good opportunity and unfortunately we couldn’t go through."
Quizzed on if his players were losing control after they clashed with Tottenham fans away to Bournemouth, Frank said: "I don’t think so. I guess you have seen the situation through?
"I just saw it to be sure I saw what I saw. Of course it’s all about keeping a cool head. The players gave everything, everything out there, (but) losing a tight game, season not going perfect and I think Ollie is very provoking.
"The way he is going down to celebrate in front of the Villa fans and he is walking into Joao, he can just easily walk around. I think everyone that has been in a competitive nature, that is difficult and can trigger things.
"You need to play with passion and when you play with passion, then sometimes you play to the line and sometimes a little bit borderline. I see players with big passion that want to do very well for the club."