Official: Porto appoint Farioli as new head coach until 2027

Porto have officially confirmed that Italian tactician Francesco Farioli has been appointed the club’s new head coach for the start of the 2025-26 season. 

“Francesco Farioli is the new coach of FC Porto,” a statement on the club website read. 

“The new head of FC Porto was born 36 years ago in a small town in Tuscany and has a different path in life than the usual. As a football fanatic and former amateur, he never abandoned his academic life and graduated with a Philosophy degree at the University of Florence.”

Official: Farioli appointed Porto head coach

Farioli joins Porto after a one-year spell in the Netherlands with Ajax, where he and the team had started life promisingly, but lost control of a nine-point lead at the top of the table with five games to go in 2024-25, and ultimately finished in second place behind PSV Eindhoven. 

Having left Ajax by mutual consent in May, citing a ‘difference in principles’,  Farioli has now put pen to paper on an initial two-year contract in Portugal, which will run until the summer of 2027. 

Porto will be the fifth club on Farioli’s CV following previous spells in Turkey with Fatih Kamagumruk and Alanyaspor, plus OGC Nice in France and the aforementioned Ajax. 

The 36-year-old replaces Martin Anselmi, who was originally appointed in January and oversaw a third-place league finish, but was let go after a disappointing return at the FIFA Club World Cup.