Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday appointed Roberto De Zerbi as the new head coach of their men's senior team on a long-term contract. De Zerbi's appointment comes after the club sacked Igor Tudor from the role earlier this week.
De Zerbi expressed his enthusiasm about joining the club. He said the opportunity to coach the team was an honour. The Italian described the club as “one of the biggest and most prestigious in the world.”
“I am delighted to be joining this fantastic football club, which is one of the biggest and most prestigious in the world," De Zerbi said in a statement issued by the club.
“In all my discussions with the club's leadership, their ambition for the future has been clear – to build a team capable of reaching great achievements, and to do that by playing a style of football that excites and inspires our supporters. I am here because I believe in that ambition and have signed a long-term contract to give everything to deliver it," he added.
"Our immediate priority is to climb the Premier League table, and I'm eager to get on the training pitch and begin working with the players,” De Zerbi added. Spurs are sitting 17th in the Premier League with 39 points. They are staring at the possibility of getting relegated from the league at the end of the season.
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Sporting Director Johan Lange said De Zerbi had been the club's top managerial target. “He is one of the most creative and forward-thinking coaches in world football,” Lange said. “We're delighted to bring him in now. His experience at the highest level, including in the Premier League, speaks for itself.”
46-year-old De Zerbi is the third person to take charge of the men's senior team this season. The club began the 2025-26 season with Thomas Frank as the head coach. Frank was discharged from the role in Feb. with the club stuck at 16th place on the Premier League points table. Frank served in the role for eight months. Tudor succeeded Frank. However, Tudor's stay at Spurs was short-lived as he got dismissed from the job after only seven games and 44 days in charge.
De Zerbi enjoyed a 15-year playing career with nearly 300 appearances before moving into coaching in Italy. His breakthrough came at Sassuolo, where from 2018 he gained acclaim for his attacking, possession-based football.
In 2021, he guided Shakhtar Donetsk to the UEFA Champions League group stage and claimed the Ukrainian Super Cup, his first trophy as a manager. His foray into the Premier League came when he was appointed as Brighton's manager & Hove Albion manager in September 2022. He led the club to its highest-ever Premier League finish and secured European qualification for the first time in its history.\
Most recently, De Zerbi managed Marseille, steering the French club to a runners-up finish in the 2024/25 Ligue 1 season and securing a place in next season's UEFA Champions League.
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