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Italian Serie A soccer club Lecce fired manager Robert D’Aversa on Monday.
But it wasn’t because of the team’s poor play.
Instead, it was because D’Aversa went full Zinedine Zidane on Sunday and headbutted Hellas Verona striker Thomas Henry.
Verona won the match 1-0 in a matchup of two teams fighting to avoid relegation to Serie B, and the incident occurred following the final whistle.
D’Aversa immediately apologized for the interaction.
“Next Saturday we have another big match [against Salernitana] and I didn’t want my players to be banned,” D’Aversa said. “So I went out to try and separate them from the opponents and then the incident with Henry happened.
“I’ve already apologized to Verona’s management,” D’Aversa added. “As a coach and father of three kids, I want to apologize for what happened.”
Both D’Aversa and Henry were shown red cards for the incident.
But that apparently wasn’t enough to appease Lecce management.
“After the events that took place at the end of the Lecce – Verona match, U.S. Lecce announces that it has relieved coach Roberto D’Aversa of his duties,” the club said in a statement.
Would the outcome have been different if D’Aversa had the club higher up the table? Potentially.
Lecce has won just five of its 28 league games. The club sits in 15th place with 25 points, one point above the relegation zone. Meanwhile, the victory for Verona took it above Lecce and into 13th place on 26 points.
D’Aversa’s headbutt may have well have landed him in the unemployment line one way or another. But the fact that the club was struggling to stave off relegation even when its manager wasn’t assaulting other players probably made the decision that much easier.
Lecce did not state who would take over for D’Aversa in the interim. But whoever it is has a tall task ahead of them.