Lotito: ‘Tudor Right to Lead Lazio, Determined & Strong Willed’

Lazio president Claudio Lotito opened up about his decision to appoint Igor Tudor as head coach, explaining the reasons and thought process.

The 45-year-old Croatian coach officially put pen to paper on his contract with the Biancocelesti last week, agreeing to a one-year contract lasting to June 2025 with an option for a second linked to sporting results, kickstarting a new era in the Italian capital.

Tudor has already started working closely with his Lazio squad and underlined his desire to see hard-working, attacking football in the coming months. His first game in charge will come against Juventus on 30^th March, a tough test for the former Olympique Marseille and Hellas Verona coach.

Speaking at a Lazio Women event (via La Lazio Siamo Noi), Lotito opened up about why he decided to appoint Tudor, explaining how the Croatian coach is the perfect man to move the project forward following Maurizio Sarri’s shock resignation earlier this month.

I’m confident. I said it yesterday when introducing the coach’s press conference. The choice I made was unplanned, but when the emergency occurred, waiting for the coach to resign, I made a thoughtful choice and I’m happy and convinced.

We’ll see the path in the league and above all next year. I have hired a determined, strong-willed coach who is both carrot and stick, which is needed in football. Today Lazio have made great investments, we will also start with the academy.

I want to create an organizational chain that starts from the youth system to the first team, and everyone must have the same organizational and infrastructural potential. It’s then up to them to make use of and demonstrate the potential.

The choice of Tudor was not by chance, nor for the emergency. I consider him the right person from a character, professional and technical-tactical point of view. He can put the team in a position to regain the safety of their resources and their potential.

In some matches the team got lost, against the strong teams we achieved great results and against the smaller ones we didn’t.

The individual players must be made responsible, Lazio are a point of arrival and not of departure and that’s recognized by everyone and by the coach himself. While I stay here and monitor, they go onto the pitch.

The only thing I can do is put disposal of the players who continually want to play this role within the club, then the matches are a story in themselves. Tudor can bring back that desire and that pride of appearance to say: ‘We’re here too’.

Maybe we could’ve even beaten those above us today. In Tudor I saw my character, he is a real person. They are all super structured ready to create excuses, this is a mistake. A wrong signal to the team, whoever is in better shape in relation to the match must play against the opponent.

Yesterday Tudor said clearly: ‘It’s ok to play well, but I’m interested in winning’. Now there are the conditions to do so, as in the women’s team. I told some players to take example from the women’s team.