Fenerbahce fans bid him a tearful farewell. Meanwhile, Bologna FC's press office was taken by surprise by Domenico Tedesco

There are currently more than 1,200 comments on X, almost all from Fenerbahce fans. Tedesco was sacked by the Istanbul club at the end of April in a shock move after a second league defeat.

The club's passionate support was sent into a frenzy, prompting President Sadettin Saran to announce just one day later that he would not stand for re-election at the weekend's ballot. The bond between Tedesco and the Fener faithful was also evident offline, at two airports.

The scenes resembled a siege: chaos erupted both when he departed the Turkish capital and upon his arrival in Stuttgart. Supporters said goodbye in tears, and he could only navigate the crowds with considerable help from police and security. 

Objectively, the fans' passionate reaction is no surprise. Tedesco restored Fener's fortunes, though silverware remained elusive at first. His Bosphorus bilan remains impressive.

On Matchday 5 of the Süper Lig, he took charge of a squad originally assembled at the behest of star coach José Mourinho. Tedesco remained unbeaten in his first 22 league games and, in January, delivered the Super Cup to Kadiköy for the first time in 11 years. Until his departure, the club also harboured hopes of a first league title in 12 years.

That run was even more impressive given the club's off-field turbulence: just 13 days after his arrival, the president who had hired him, Ali Koc, was replaced by Saran. In early December, captain Mert Hakan Yandas was remanded in custody following the betting scandal that had emerged in the autumn. On top of that, Fener were hit by a spate of injuries that sidelined more than half a dozen players.

Five difficult days proved decisive for the club's board, prompting them to suddenly sack the popular coach. The team first exited the cup in the quarter-finals after extra time against Konyaspor, then surrendered the league title with a 3-0 derby defeat to eventual champions Galatasaray.

Tedesco was taken by surprise: "We had only just been discussing an early contract extension," he told dpa. "Now, after just our second league defeat of the season, we're parting ways. It shows how fast-paced football has become. When I started, the aim was to build something sustainable together; we wanted to do things a little differently from the way they'd been done in the past."

Matteo Guendouzi, the former Hertha player who only joined the club in January, was full of praise following Tedesco's dismissal, having previously compared him to Unai Emery: "Thank you for everything you've done for me, Coach. It was a privilege to work with such a great manager and a great person."

Despite spending only seven months in charge, Tedesco followed three other coaches at Fenerbahe by exiting despite a points-per-game ratio of at least 2.0. José Mourinho (2.02), Ismail Kartal (2.4) and Jorge Jesus (2.23) had suffered the same fate. Tedesco won 26 of his 45 competitive matches with Fener, losing only seven. That 2.0 points-per-game average is the best of his six coaching spells to date.

He wasted little time before taking charge of Bologna, his seventh coaching job in his fifth country, and has never been out of work for more than seven months. Yet he has not completed a second season with any club.

Tedesco's issue, if it can be called that, is that he enjoys a far better reputation abroad than he does at home in Germany. There, his time at FC Schalke 04 (July 2017 to March 2019) still counts against him, even though he finished runners-up in the league and reached the Champions League round of 16. 

Back then, unlike at his later clubs, Tedesco's side adopted a decidedly pragmatic style of play. Critics derided it as "the ugliest football ever played by a team in second place in the table". Yet a key detail was often overlooked: the stop he made before arriving in Gelsenkirchen, where the son of Italian parents had taken charge of a struggling second-tier side.

Tedesco had taken his first professional job less than four months earlier, at 31, with a second-division side mired near the bottom and under immediate relegation threat. Yet he turned Erzgebirge Aue's fortunes around immediately, picking up 1.82 points per game over eleven matches and keeping the club up. To this day he is revered as a legend at Wismut.

After Schalke, he moved to Spartak Moscow, where the coronavirus pandemic interrupted his 20-month tenure despite the club's desire to keep him. He then joined RB Leipzig. In his first season there, Tedesco won the DFB-Pokal, the club's first major title, and reached the semi-finals of the Europa League. When he turned down an early contract extension, he was shown the door after just five Bundesliga matchdays.

Then there's Belgium. In 2023, Tedesco took charge of the national team for the first time. He secured a historic win over Germany—their first in 69 years—in only his second game. The Red Devils went 16 months without defeat under his command. Their showing at the European Championship in Germany was underwhelming, yet their round-of-16 exit came by the narrowest of margins: an own goal in the 85th minute against favourites France.

These results make Tedesco's mixed reputation in Germany look unjustified, and the contrast with his standing abroad is stark. Italian media have hailed him as the ideal coach for Bologna, praising his attacking football, high pressing, ball possession and tactical flexibility.

SPOX reports that he had also received approaches from England and Germany, yet Tedesco has long harboured the ambition to coach in his parents' homeland. SSC Napoli and Atalanta Bergamo had previously shown interest in him. 

Giovanni Sartori finally gets his man in Tedesco. The 69-year-old Technical Director at Bologna since 2022—and in the same role in Bergamo for nearly eight years before that—has been pursuing the coach for years and re-established contact long before Tedesco's exit from Istanbul.

After a turbulent spell at Fener, Bologna's calm, by Italian standards, should suit Tedesco well. Founded in 1909, Bologna boasts a rich tradition and has recently shown exceptional progress. In 2024, they qualified for the Champions League for the first time in 60 years, and a year later, they ended a 51-year trophy drought with a sensational victory in the Coppa Italia.

Tedesco's challenge will be significant: predecessor Vincenzo Italiano had just steered the club to a respectable eighth-place finish, narrowly missing out on European qualification. 

It is not yet clear who Tedesco will face in his debut. Some Fener supporters, still stinging from his departure, have taken to social media to suggest a friendly between the clubs—a match that might yet happen if the new management in Istanbul grants them their wish.