Fabio Paratici will leave his post as Tottenham’s joint sporting director after the closure of the January transfer window to take up a similar recruitment job at Fiorentina.

The Italian came back to Spurs on a full-time basis in mid-October to work alongside Johan Lange, who was promoted from his role of technical director. Paratici had been Spurs’s managing director of football between 2021 and 2023 before resigning after a Fifa ban for alleged financial malpractice during his time at Juventus. After an appeal, he was allowed to act for Spurs on a consultancy basis.

Paratici will return to Italy, partly because of a change to his personal circumstances, and try to help Fiorentina out of the Serie A relegation places. The 53-year-old’s departure has been well trailed, with eyebrows raised at the beginning of January when the Spurs winger Manor Solomon cut short his loan at Villarreal to switch to Fiorentina, also on loan.

The Spurs manager, Thomas Frank, was asked at the time who Paratici was working for. “Good question, maybe you know,” he said with a smile before rejoining the party line. “Fabio is Tottenham sporting director. He is working very hard for Tottenham.”

Spurs’s chief executive, Vinai Venkatesham, said: “We have agreed that Fabio will return to Italy following the conclusion of the January transfer window, in line with his wish to move back home. We thank Fabio for his contribution to the club and wish him well for the future. Our management structure is designed to be resilient to personnel changes, and it will be business as usual.”

Paratici said: “I want to thank Vinai and the board for accommodating my desire to return to Italy and join Fiorentina. I have loved my time at the club, however this opportunity, together with the need to be based in my homeland, has led me to this decision.”