Patrick Vieira hired as Genoa coach with potential implications for Mario Balotelli

FILE - Then-Crystal Palace’s head coach Patrick Vieira applauds during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Crystal Palace, at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson, File)

GENOA, Italy (AP) — Genoa confirmed Patrick Vieira as its new coach on Wednesday and it remains to be seen what implications that will have for Mario Balotelli, less than a month after the former Italy forward joined the Serie A club.

Vieira and Balotelli were teammates at Inter Milan and Manchester City but fell out when Vieira was Nice coach, eventually leading to Balotelli moving to Marseille.

The 48-year-old Vieira previously managed New York City FC in Major League Soccer and went on to coach Crystal Palace and then Strasbourg after leaving Nice.

Genoa announced in a brief statement that it had chosen Vieira to replace Alberto Gilardino, who was surprisingly fired on Tuesday, and that Vieira would take charge of his first training session on Wednesday afternoon.

During a stellar playing career Vieira won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship with France, as well as three Premier League titles with Arsenal and four Serie A titles with Inter.

Vieira’s first match in charge of Genoa will be at home against Cagliari in the Italian league on Sunday. The teams are level on points in the table, just one point above the relegation zone.

Genoa has lost half of its league matches this season but the dismissal of Gilardino still came as a surprise as he had appeared to have turned things around, picking up four points from the two matches before the international break. The future also looked more positive with the team’s injury problems starting to ease.

Not PARSE.LY: Soccer