Lazio 2025 Report Card Part 1: President, Sporting Director, and Coaches

As 2025 comes to an end, Lazio can take stock of a season marked by sharp contrasts, sudden swings, and constant changes of direction. It was never a linear year. Instead, it unfolded through managerial shifts, tactical upheaval, and individual stories that rose or collapsed depending on who was sitting on the bench.

The year began under Marco Baroni, a choice initially met with skepticism and controversy. Early results gradually softened the criticism, as Baroni managed to reshape the squad and extract performances that exceeded expectations. That momentum, however, proved unsustainable. The season ultimately closed in disappointment and frustration, with Lazio slipping out of the European picture and leaving behind the feeling of a missed opportunity.

Then came the return of Maurizio Sarri, a comeback driven more by emotion than convenience. His bond with the club and the city reignited belief during one of Lazio’s most complicated periods, defined by a frozen transfer market and deep structural issues. Despite those constraints, Sarri’s impact has been largely positive. His presence once again underlined a reality Lazio know all too well: systems, ideas, and leadership fundamentally shape individual and collective destinies.

With that context in mind, here is a year end assessment of Lazio’s key figures in 2025.

Claudio Lotito

If 2025 were a television series, it would feel closer to Stranger Things than a sports documentary. From the Bernabé affair to the summer transfer freeze, Lazio lived through a sequence of missteps so frequent and surreal that they bordered on tragicomedy. The club appeared lost in its own Upside Down, with contradictions at every level. A sporting director who claimed he could not buy without guarantees of improvement, a communication strategy so innovative it became invisible, and a president who managed to ridicule his coach, blame supporters for refereeing controversies, and then cry conspiracy, all within a matter of weeks. The year ended with a symbolic escape to the United States, a gesture that felt like anything but a focus on sporting growth.

Rating: 1

Angelo Fabiani

Two positives stand out in an otherwise empty year: the arrival of Provstgaard and the capital gain generated by Tchaouna. Beyond that, Fabiani’s 2025 felt alarmingly passive. In January, he chased players with promises he could not back, failing to support a coach who was delivering results and deserved continuity. In the summer, faced with a transfer ban, he missed a golden opportunity to plan ahead. Instead of long term vision, the response was rhetorical retreat and self justification.

Rating: 4

Marco Baroni

His season ends with objective failure: elimination in Europe against Bodø and the first Lazio coach in nearly a decade to miss out on European qualification for the following year. Yet context matters. Baroni was first seduced, then misled, and finally abandoned by the club both in the market and in public communication. He paid for mistakes that were not entirely his own.

Rating: 6

Maurizio Sarri

Sarri risks becoming a martyr figure. He returned to a club that concealed the extent of its transfer market paralysis and failed to back him during his first confrontation with the refereeing system. Forced to work with a squad that was not built for him, he adapted, reshaped roles, and revived players with astonishing ease. One small miracle followed another, often achieved through compromise and personal sacrifice. He will endure until June, but when the time comes, he will rightly demand recognition for the credit he has earned, hoping someone is finally willing to listen.

Rating: 10