Fiorentina v Hellas Verona: former players and interesting facts

Sunday’s match will be the 85^th between Fiorentina and Hellas Verona. The record stands at 41 wins for Fiorentina, 20 for Verona and 23 draws. Fiorentina have scored a total of 125 goals, compared to the 83 of their opponents. The top goal scorer of the fixture is Gabriel Batistuta with seven goals, followed by Giancarlo Antognoni with six and Moise Kean with five.

There have been two competitive encounters between Paolo Vanoli and Paolo Zanetti, both last season. The current Fiorentina coach collected one draw and one win (1-1 and 2-3). Vanoli joined Hellas Verona in 1995 and after one year at the club secured promotion from Serie B. He would then play for the team for two more years in Serie A. He won one Coppa Italia while playing for Fiorentina and became coach of the team last November.

The last game between the two teams in Florence dates back to last year and ended in a 3-1 win for the hosts thanks to a hat-trick scored by Kean.

Fiorentina v Hellas Verona is always a special match. A historic fan alliance dating back to 1976 unites these two teams at an emotional level, but this bond can also be seen on the pitch through the former players who have played for both clubs. For example Celeste Pin: the captain of both teams is still a vivid memory. Antonio Di Gennaro, Luigi Sacchetti and Luciano Bruni played for Verona when they won the league title and all of them rose through the ranks at Fiorentina. In 1989 Verona transferred Giuseppe Volpecina, Stefano Pioli and Giuseppe Iachini to Fiorentina, while Ernesto Calisti and Ennio Pellegrini were transferred from Fiorentina to Verona. Sebastien Frey made a name for himself while at Fiorentina, after playing for Verona in Serie A in 1999. That team was coached by Cesare Prandelli, who would go on to lead Fiorentina to the Champions League years later.

The coach from Brescia also coached Mattia Cassani, Alessandro Gamberini, Dario Dainelli, Marco Donadel, Adrian Mutu, Cristian Brocchi, Giampaolo Pazzini and Luca Toni (who also won the European Golden Shoe): all of these players also played for Verona.

Samuel Di Carmine, who was born and raised in Florence, joined Verona in 2018 and, in three years there, scored a total of 20 goals. Romulo first arrived in Italy thanks to Fiorentina and played for the club for two years, subsequently joining Verona in 2013. Ante Rebic had two spells at Fiorentina between 2013 and 2016, making his Serie A debut and scoring his first goal against Torino. He joined Verona from Fiorentina on loan and stayed at the club until the end of the season. Martin Caceres scored three goals for Verona and four for Fiorentina between 2019 and 2021.

Recently Sofyan Amrabat and Antonin Barak (who both played for Verona) were coached by Vincenzo Italiano, former Verona pillar who coached Fiorentina from 2021 to 2024. Then Davide Faraoni and Michael Folorunsho who joined Fiorentina in 2024 and 2025 respectively, after spending six years and one year at Verona respectively. The former players on the pitch today will be Kean (who joined Verona on loan from Juventus) and Nicolas Valentini (also a Fiorentina player but on loan to Verona).

There are also several connections between the two clubs when it comes to their coaches. After leaving the national team, Ferruccio Valcareggi managed Verona, Fiorentina, and Roma for various spells between 1979 and 1980. Nils Liedholm secured promotion to Serie A with Verona before leading Fiorentina from 1971 to 1973. Alberto Malesani led Fiorentina to a fifth-place finish in the 1997/98 season and later managed his hometown club from 2001 to 2003. Finally, Prandelli led Verona to Serie A and subsequently helped Fiorentina qualify for the Champions League during his five-year tenure in Florence.