The Italian-American entrepreneur and Fiorentina president died at the age of 76. The news was announced by his family through an official statement published on the club’s website.
Florence mourns Rocco Commisso. Fiorentina’s president passed away in the United States at the age of 76 after a “prolonged period of medical treatment”.
The announcement was made by the family in a statement released by the Viola club. His death deeply affects the city and the entire Fiorentina world, which had a direct, often intense, but always genuine relationship with Commisso.
As stated in the release, “His love for Fiorentina was the greatest gift he gave himself (…) Tireless, he worked until his final days, dedicating himself to his companies Mediacom and Fiorentina, and to their future”.
Born in Marina di Gioiosa Ionica in 1949 and emigrating to the United States as a child, Commisso built his fortune overseas by founding Mediacom, which grew into one of the leading cable operators internationally. A successful businessman and a proud Italian-American deeply connected to his roots, he acquired Fiorentina in 2019, marking the beginning of a new era for the club.
As president, he restored financial stability and renewed sporting ambitions. A trophy with the first team never came, but Fiorentina returned to being competitive in Serie A, reached a Coppa Italia final, and proudly re-established itself on the European stage, narrowly missing out on the Conference League title twice, losing two finals in two years.
In the most recent season, Commisso invested heavily in the transfer market in an effort to relaunch the team during the club’s centenary year, although on the pitch things ultimately went very differently from what he had hoped and expected.
His most lasting legacy for the Viola remains the Viola Park, inaugurated in 2024: a state-of-the-art training complex, one of the largest in Europe, fully funded by the president and conceived as “the home of Fiorentina,” a symbol of a project built around the future, youth development, and women’s football.
With Rocco Commisso, Italian football loses a central figure of recent years: a hands-on, divisive but always recognizable president, who tied his name to Fiorentina’s structural rebirth.
Today, Florence bids him farewell with respect, aware that it is losing not just an executive, but a key protagonist of its recent history.
