Hamburg's Jonas Boldt Latest Name Connected to Roma Director Role

Now that the delayed summer/fall transfer window has gently closed, Roma can get back to the business of doing business. While the Stadio della Roma ducks finally seem to be getting into a row and Roma may be nearing a new kit deal with New Balance, the actual football operations division remains leaderless. After the dismissal of Director of Sport Gianluca Petrachi earlier this year, the day to day operations, including piloting the club through an unprecedented transfer window, fell to CEO Guido Fienga.

While Fienga did well to equip his side with a few final missing pieces (Chris Smalling, Borja Mayoral, Pedro and Marash Kumbulla) and managed to shed some superfluous players and salaries (Patrik Schick, Diego Perotti), the club are still searching for a permanent figure to occupy the empty director's chair.

For much of the summer and early fall, we've bandied names like Red Bull's Ralf Rangnick, Juventus’ Fabio Paratici and even a few longshot candidates like Morgan De Sanctis and Nicolas Burdisso about, but now, according to Il Tempo, we can add another name to that list: Hamburg's Jonas Boldt.

Boldt, a 38-year-old Nürnberg native, has worked his way up the Bundesliga administrative ladder, starting off as a scout with Bayer Leverkusen in 2006-2007 eventually becoming the club's Director of Sport in 2018; a position he held for one season before assuming a similar role with Hamburg, where he is employed currently. In his time as a scout and/or director, Boldt had a hand in bringing Arturo Vidal to Bayer and was famous for signing Hakan Çalahanoglu from Hamburg in 2013, while he also managed to sell Bernd Leno to Arsenal for €25 million.

According to Il Tempo, Boldt and the Friedkins have already met to discuss Roma's vacant director role and may already have a second meeting arranged early next week. With Paratici increasingly likely to remain with Juventus and no serious traction being made with any other candidate, Boldt could be a surprise selection if his rapport with the Friedkin's continues to progress in the coming days and weeks.

While Dan Friedkin is spinning multiple plates at the moment—the stadium, the kit deal, a new TV contract—there may be no more important decision (with respect to philosophy) than the club's next Director of Sport; it will give us perhaps the best indication of what sort of club Roma will be over the next five years or so.