Roma have confirmed manager Paulo Fonseca will leave the club at the end of the season and be replaced by Jose Mourinho.
Mourinho, 58, has been out of work following his sacking by Tottenham Hotspur last month but is now set to take over in the Italian capital ahead of the new season.
The former Manchester United and Chelsea manager has managed in Italy once before, guiding Inter Milan towards back-to-back league titles as well as an historic Treble in 2010.
A statement from Roma read: “The club are delighted to announce an agreement has been reached with Jose Mourinho for him to become our new head coach ahead of the 2021-22 season.”
Fonseca’s exit comes with the Italian side on a dismal run of six matches without a win, including a 6-2 hammering at Old Trafford last week. Fonseca will take charge of Roma for the second leg against United.
Roma led United 2-1 at half-time in their Europa League semi-final first leg but went on to concede five times after the break without reply.
The thrashing means Roma are effectively already out of the Europa League ahead of the second leg in Rome on Thursday evening.
Roma will need to win by a margin of at least four goals if they are to have any chance of reaching the final in Gdansk later this month, but suffered another defeat at the weekend as they lost 2-0 at Sampdoria.
The loss represented the sixth match in a row in which Roma have not secured a win and ahead of the second leg versus United they confirmed Fonseca’s impending exit.
“The club can confirm that head coach Paulo Fonseca will leave at the end of the season,” a tweet from the club’s social media account read on Tuesday morning.
Roma lie seventh in Serie A with four matches of the season remaining, but are already mathematically out of the run-in for Champions League qualification and will miss out on Europa League qualification too if Napoli secure another point in those games.