«In these years he has given me a big hand and it is right to give him a deserved recognition, so from today he will be the new general manager of Fiorentina and will enter the board of directors». If football is anxious for Joe Barone, hospitalized in intensive care at San Raffaele in Milan these hours, it is also because a few months after the purchase of the club from the Della Valle, Rocco Commisso announced his appointment as his right-hand man in the Viola society, thus strengthening a bond and a collaboration that had taken off some years before.
Born in Pozzallo, Sicily, on March 20, 1966, Barone moved with his family to the United States, to Brooklyn, at the age of 8. After completing his studies, he started a career in the banking-finance sector, interrupted after meeting the Italo-American magnate of Calabrian origin who inserted him into his telecommunications company Mediacom and subsequently appointed him vice president in 2017 of the New York Cosmos, immediately after acquiring the majority stake, saving them from bankruptcy.
The Sicilian manager, married to Mrs. Camilla who has given him four children (Pietro, who made him a grandfather a year ago, Salvatore, Giuseppe former footballer of Ascoli, Perugia and Salernitana, and Gabriella), is in short Commisso’s man in everything in the world of football. In fact, the entrepreneur, after sending him to Florence in his place, while waiting to close the deal with the Della Valle family, then entrusted him with the management and conduct of Fiorentina from the very beginning, as a demonstration of complete trust and esteem.
Barone represents the Viola club in the league’s board meetings, he is always the one personally involved in the transfer market as well as the projects of the Viola Park and the stadium issue. In some cases, his decisions and statements have sparked criticism and controversy, but Commisso has always sided with him: “The more my executives are criticized, the more Rocco will stand by them, that’s my method,” the Viola patron has always responded.
In terapia intensiva Joe Barone, il proconsole di Commisso alla Fiorentina: nato a Pozzallo, ha fatto fortuna negli Usa
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