Genoa have officially bought KV Oostende coach Alexander Blessin out of his contract after Bruno Labbadia turned them down, bringing Gegenpressing to Serie A.
The decision came out of nowhere, as Blessin hadn’t even really been mentioned as one of the candidates in the Italian media.
KVO released a statement confirming they had reached an agreement with Genoa to release Blessin, with the Serie A side paying a release clause.
He is replaced on the Oostende bench by assistant Markus Plfanz until a new coach can be found.
Genoa sacked Davide Ballardini in November, then fired Andriy Shevchenko less than two months later.
They had agreed terms with former Hertha Berlin manager Labbadia, who then pulled out at the last minute after seeing their 6-0 Serie A defeat to Fiorentina.
Like Labbadia, Blessin is German and still relatively young for a coach at 48 years old and has signed a contract to June 2024 with the Grifone.
He had taken over at Oostende in the summer of 2020 after working his way up through the various youth academy levels at RB Leipzig, where he became a purveyor of their Gegenpressing system.
KVO bereikte een akkoord met @GenoaCFC over de overgang van Alexander Blessin. Genoa betaalt de clausule, assistent Markus Pflanz neemt over tot er een nieuwe coach is.@GGanaye: Dit is een emotioneel moment maar we wisten dat deze dag ooit zou komen.
👉 https://t.co/hEJbbXymws pic.twitter.com/Z2CTfZwypV
— KV Oostende (@kvoostende) January 19, 2022
🔴🔵 Alexander #Blessin è il nuovo allenatore del Genoa. Benvenuto mister!
📝 https://t.co/mOIZ09zqB3 pic.twitter.com/gPR8W2lGP4
— Genoa CFC (@GenoaCFC) January 19, 2022
Looks like he means business!