Sunderland are close to appointing Florent Ghisolfi as the club’s director of football.
Sporting director Kristjaan Speakman will remain at newly-promoted Sunderland and will work alongside Ghisolfi, who was Roma’s sporting director for 2024-25.
Ghisolfi had interest from other clubs in England, Italy and Saudi Arabia.
A former midfielder, Ghisolfi led Roma to a top-five finish in Serie A for the first time in five seasons last term, missing out on Champions League qualification to Juventus by one point.
The 40-year-old, who decided to leave Roma this summer, had his first sporting director role at Lens, who won promotion back to Ligue 1 during his time at the club before later qualifying for the Champions League.
Ghisolfi worked at Nice with INEOS between 2022 and 2024, where head coach Francesco Farioli had wished to retain his services before Roma saw off interest from Monaco to secure his signature last summer.
Sunderland are back in the Premier League for the first time since 2017, having defeated Sheffield United in last month’s Championship play-off final.
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