Ajax agree fee with Nice for coach Farioli – reports

Ajax Amsterdam have agreed a fee for the release of Nice coach Francesco Farioli with the 35-year-old expected to sign a three-year contract in the coming days, according to media reports in France and the Netherlands on Wednesday.

Italian Farioli will replace John van 't Schip following a poor season in the Eredivisie in which Ajax ended fifth, their lowest finish since the 1999-00 season.

Ajax will pay Nice 1.25-million euros ($1.35 million) in compensation according to NOS.nl as Farioli becomes the first foreign coach at the club since the Dane Morten Olsen in 1997.

Farioli, in his third full season as a coach, took Nice to fifth in Ligue 1 this term. He previously led Turkish clubs Fatih Karagumruk and Alanyaspor, and joined Nice at the start of the 2023-24 campaign.

Farioli was goalkeeper coach under former Brighton & Hove Albion manager Roberto De Zerbi at Benevento and Sassuolo, and did not play professional football himself.

($1 = 0.9244 euros)