Massimiliano Allegri has been re-appointed as Juventus manager following the sacking of Andrea Pirlo.
Allegri has come back to the Turin club on a €9m (£7.7m)-a-year deal, two years after he departed following a successful first spell in charge.
The 53-year-old guided Juve to two Champions League finals, he also won four Coppa Italia trophies between 2014 and 2019 and departed that summer after a fifth straight Serie A triumph.
Allegri was understood to be the favourite to fill the vacant post at Real Madrid following Zinedine Zidane’s departure, but Antonio Conte, who guided Inter Milan to the Serie A title last season, is now believed under consideration as a candidate to replace Zidane at the Bernabeu.
The appointment comes following the dismissal of Pirlo earlier on Friday, with the 42-year-old having overseen Juve missing out on the Italian top-flight title for the first time in 10 years.
“Now we are ready to begin again with Allegri, to build our future together with his enormous professionalism, his moral strength, with the brilliant ideas of a coach capable of shuffling the cards, both on and off the pitch,” said a Juventus statement.
Allegri had been out of football since leaving Juventus in June 2019.
Pirlo played 164 games for Juventus between 2011 and 2015 and won four Serie A titles in Turin after joining from AC Milan, with whom he spent most of his career and won two Champions League and two league titles.
He also earned 116 caps for Italy and helped them to win the 2006 World Cup, retiring in 2017 having spent two years in Major League Soccer at New York City FC after leaving Juventus.
A statement on the Juventus website said: “Thanks Andrea. These are the first words that all of us must pronounce at the end of this special experience lived together.”
Pirlo added: “It’s been an intense, complicated year but still wonderful. When I got the call from Juventus, I never thought about the risk I was taking.
“If I had to go back, I would make the exact same choice again, although aware of all the obstacles I encountered in such a difficult time for everyone, which prevented me from better planning my intentions and my style of play.”
It is the latest managerial move among Europe’s big clubs with Antonio Conte leaving Inter Milan to be replaced by former Lazio boss Simone Inzaghi and Zinedine Zidane departing Real Madrid.
