Maurizio Sarri, the current Lazio manager, left fans in splits after aiming a middle finger at a member of the Hallas Verona bench. The incident took place during Lazio’s match against Verona on Sunday, September 11, and went viral on social media after being caught on live TV.

The 63-year-old former Chelsea boss was previously pictured giving the middle finger to a Juventus fan while he was the manager of Napoli. 

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It was reported that after Ciro Immobile scored for the Rome-based side, Sarri got into an argument with the Verona coach Alessandro Mazzola. During the argument, a member of the Verona backroom team said something to Sarri, and the 63-year-old got offended by it. 

It was at this moment that the veteran football manager made the gesture that set social media on fire. 

Sarri later cleared the air around the heated incident during the post-match press conference. When asked about what had happened, Sarri said, “I had the feeling he had told me to sit down”, adding, “After that, we cleared up and we laughed about it.”

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However, by the time the air around the incident was cleared, it was too late and reactions had already started flowing in on all social media platforms. 

One user on Twitter took a dig at the Italian manager’s infamous habit of smoking. 

One Chelsea fan put up a sarcastic call for the sacking of recently appointed Graham Potter and reappointing Sarri in his place. The person wrote on Twitter, “The Don is back, sack [Graham] Potter asap.” 

The incident quickly subsided and Lazio went on to win the match 2-0 with the second goal coming from Luis Alberto in the 95th minute. Lazio is currently sitting sixth in the Serie A table with 11 points from six matches.