GENOA, ITALY – DECEMBER 21: Marco Ottolini, sports manager of Genoa, looks on prior to kick-off in the Serie A match between Genoa and Napoli at Stadio Luigi Ferraris on December 21, 2024 in Genoa, Italy. (Photo by Simone Arveda/Getty Images)
Wednesday’s reports claim that Genoa’s Marco Ottolini is currently the leading candidate to take over as the new sporting director at Juventus, but who is the Grifone executive, where has he worked previously, and who have been his biggest signings to date?
Who is Juventus-linked Ottolini?
Ottolini is a 45-year-old scout turned sporting director, originally from Brescia. He had a brief career as a player, joining Brescia as a youth player in 1993, and had a couple of years in the first team until 2002.
From there, Ottolini began studying at the Universita degli Studi di Verona, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in foreign languages and literature. During that period, he interned with the Belgian FA, his first experience in the management side of the game.
He went on to work as an agent, intermediary and consultant for over a decade, before joining RSC Anderlecht of the Jupiler Pro League as an international scout. He worked with the Belgian outfit for just shy of three years between 2015 and 2018.
From 2018, Ottolini began his first stint with Juventus. He held several roles with the Bianconeri the first time around, initially as a scout, before being promoted to the role of loans manager in 2021.
After a year managing the on-loan Juventus players, Ottolini earned his first job as a sporting director, joining Genoa at the start of the 2022-23 season.
Genoa had suffered relegation to Serie B the season prior, but earned immediate promotion back to the top flight in Ottolini’s first year with the club. The Grifone have achieved stable mid-table finishes in both seasons since then, ending in 11th in 2023-24 and 13th in 2024-25.
Ottolini has already turned a profit on a number of his Genoa signings, including the likes of Mateo Retegui, Radu Dragusin, Koni De Winter, Albert Gudmundsson and Josep Martinez.
Ottolini’s top Genoa signings
Mateo Retegui – €15m from Tigre
Albert Gudmundsson €1.5m from AZ Alkmaar
Koni De Winter – Loan with €10m option to buy from Juventus
Radu Dragusin – Loan with €10m option to buy from Juventus
Josep Martinez – Loan with €3.5m option to buy from RB Leipzig
Brooke Norton-Cuffy – €2m from Arsenal
Djed Spence – Loan from Tottenham
Ottolini’s top Genoa sales
Radu Dragusin → Tottenham €31m
Mateo Retegui → Atalanta – €28m
Honest Ahanor → Atalanta – €20m
Koni De Winter → Milan €20m
Josep Martinez → Inter – €15.5m
Albert Gudmundsson → Fiorentina – €13m
Read the full article here