Fiorentina director Joe Barone suffered a cardiac arrest on Sunday. He is Rocco Commisso’s right-hand man at the Stadio Franchi and is in charge of many aspects of the club, from the youth sector to transfers.
The 57-year-old Italian-American businessman was hospitalised at the intensive care unit at the San Raffaele Hospital on Sunday evening after suffering a cardiac arrest just hours before the Viola’s Serie A clash with Atalanta, forcing the match to be quickly postponed.
Joe Barone has been the Fiorentina Chief Executive Officer for over three years now, arriving at the club in November 2019 alongside president Rocco Commisso, his long-time collaborator.
The Viola director was born in Pozzallo, Sicily in 1966 and moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York at the age of eight. He began working at Mediacom after meeting Commisso and in 2017 was named vice-president of the New York Cosmos.
He returned to Italy in 2019 when Commisso bought Fiorentina and immediately became a reference point for the club president and the fans.
Barone is Commisso’s right-hand man at Fiorentina and is in charge of the club’s main aspects, including the youth sector and the women’s team. He was responsible for the Viola Park project, the new training centre inaugurated at the beginning of the current campaign.
He keeps relationships with the Lega Serie A and the main institutions and is in the first row for transfer negotiations alongside sporting director Daniele Pradé, who spent all night at the hospital on Sunday.
Vincenzo Italiano and the Fiorentina squad have already visited Barone, who underwent a heart operation, at the San Raffaele Hospital and he’s received an outpouring of support from across the Italian footballing community.
Our thoughts at Football Italia are with Barone’s family and friends, hoping that the Fiorentina director will soon recover and return to the Calcio frontline.