Leicester City senior scout to leave the Foxes for AS Roma
Leicester City senior scout José Fontes will leave the Foxes to join AS Roma.
Just Football understands that Fontes will leave the FA Cup winners in July to join the Italian giants after being appointed to the role of Chief Scout at Roma, where he will work under new manager Jose Mourinho.
Fontes joined Leicester in 2016 and has developed a growing reputation within the game. He played an important role in identifying numerous key signings made by Leicester over the past five years including the signings of James Maddison, Caglar Soyuncu and Ricardo Pereira. He also had a major input into player recruitment and strategy at the club.
Leicester City have enjoyed unprecedented success in the past five years, winning the Premier League title for the first time in their history in 2016 before following that up with their first ever FA Cup triumph in May.
Central to this success has been a smart recruitment strategy that has seen the club identify and recruit several players who would go on to be central figures in their success. Leicester have won admiration for their ability to identify talent, sell at a major profit and then replace outgoing players with new high quality players that fit the system.
Fontes’ work at the Foxes has not gone unnoticed. This has attracted the attention of AS Roma, who have now moved to lure Leicester’s senior scout to the Italian capital. At Roma Fontes will work as the Chief Scout with a remit to rejuvenate the club’s recruitment in Serie A and push them to new heights.
Leicester are thought to be disappointed to lose Fontes, particularly ahead of such an important transfer window for the club. The Foxes finished fifth in the Premier League this season, narrowly missing out on Champions League qualification by one point.
Roma meanwhile finished seventh in Serie A and will look to narrow what was a 29-point gap to champions Internazionale at the top.
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