Budan retires to take up Palermo backroom role

Palermo striker Igor Budan has announced he will bring an end to his playing career in order to serve as the club’s new team manager.

The 33-year-old enjoyed two spells with the Italian club during his time as a player, with the latter stint lasting five years and ending with a brief loan to Atalanta.

But he will now oversee team affairs while going through a course that will qualify him to one day take on the role of director of football.

Budan ends his playing career having earned six caps with the Croatian national team.

Palermo suffered relegation to the second tier of Italian football last term, finishing 18th in Serie A under the guidance of Giuseppe Sannino.

Sannino was in fact the club’s sixth manager that season and, like Gian Piero Gasperini, enjoyed two separate spells in charge of Palermo during the 2012-13 campaign.

The Sicilian side have since appointed former Italy international Gennaro Gattuso to the role ahead of the new Serie B season.