Maurizio Sarri, the old Chelsea boss, just had heart surgery because he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. Lazio, his current team, put out a statement with the info.

Sarri, who's 66, was at Chelsea for just one year, from 2018 to 2019, and he won the Europa League. After that, he was at Juventus for a short time before joining Lazio in 2021. He came back to Lazio in 2025 after taking about a year off.

But just a few months after getting back into coaching, Sarri had to have a serious op. The good news is, it went well, and he should be back on the sidelines soon.

Lazio Says When Sarri's Coming Back After Heart Surgery

Lazio's official statement had the details about the surgery. They said it was a success, and they know when they think he'll be back. Here's what it said:

Lazio says that Maurizio Sarri had transcatheter ablation surgery using PFA tech at the Tor Vergata Polyclinic because he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.

Prof. Andrea Natale, who's a world-famous expert with over 30 years of experience treating this, did the surgery, and it was a success.

Dr. Italo Leo, the Lazio team doctor, was there.

The coach should be back to running the team in the next few days.

Lazio and Sarri want to thank the Policlinico Tor Vergata and Prof. Natale's team for being so professional and taking such good care of everyone.

Atrial Fibrillation: What It Is

TalkSport did a report explaining that atrial fibrillation (Afib or AF) is when your heartbeat is irregular. Symptoms can be things like an irregular heartbeat, chest pain, a heartbeat that's too fast (over 100), and feeling dizzy.

When Sarri was at Chelsea, he used to chew on cigarette butts during games since smoking wasn't allowed in the stadiums. But there's nothing to say that his health scare is because of that.

Besides winning the Europa League in 2019, people in England might remember him for losing the 2019 Carabao Cup final to Manchester City. That was the game where Kepa Arrizabalaga, the goalie, refused to be subbed out for the penalty shootout.

Sarri didn't take the usual path to becoming a manager. He wasn't a pro player and worked as a banker before getting his first Serie B job at Pescara in 2005. He made a name for himself at Napoli, but his only big wins were with Chelsea and Juventus, where he won Serie A in 2020.

Who knew a 20-year-old with barely any Serie A starts could nail the analysis of Italian soccer so well? Francesco Pio Esposito said it best: scoring is the hardest part of the game.

He was talking about his Inter teammate, Lautaro Martínez, whom he set up for the winning goal against Atalanta. Pio Esposito had just subbed in when he got lucky with a bad pass from Berat Djimsiti. Instead of shooting himself, he tricked the defender and passed to Lautaro, who scored easily.

Inter's season has been shaky so far. Six months into Cristian Chivu’s time as manager, they're still figuring things out. They've lost four league games—including to Juventus, Milan, and Napoli—and got knocked out of the SuperCoppa early by Bologna.

But they're still leading Serie A at the end of 2025 because of that win against Atalanta, even though they've played one less game than some other teams. Milan is right behind them, and Napoli isn't far behind either, with Juventus and Roma still in the mix. It might be a close race to the championship, and right now Inter is ahead.

And maybe Pio Esposito is right about why. Even though goals are tough to come by in Serie A, Inter has Lautaro, who's a scoring machine. His goal against Atalanta wasn't anything special, but he took the chance and scored.

If anyone forgot how hard it is to score, Lazar Samardzic reminded them soon after. He had a great chance to tie the game for Atalanta but missed badly.

Lautaro's been on fire lately, scoring in four straight league games. He's the top scorer in Serie A this season, tied with Riccardo Orsolini for the year with 15 goals each. Orsolini plays as a winger, so his goal count is more impressive, even though it includes four penalty kicks, while Lautaro hasn't taken any.

It's worth noting that 15 goals isn't that high for the top scorer compared to Kylian Mbappé in La Liga (39), Harry Kane in the Bundesliga (31), and Erling Haaland in the Premier League (27).

It's not necessarily twice as hard to score in Serie A. Mateo Retegui, who was last season’s top scorer, left Atalanta to play in Saudi Arabia, which probably lowered the goal count. He already had 13 goals from January to May.

Also, some good players have been hurt. Gianluca Scamacca, who replaced Retegui at Atalanta, is only now getting back to his best after his injury. Romelu Lukaku, Napoli's main striker, has been out since August.

Still, Serie A is having one of its lowest-scoring seasons in a while, with just 2.327 goals per game. That's less than in previous years.

There's no single reason for this. Apart from players leaving or getting hurt, managerial changes might have something to do with it. Atalanta had to start over when Gian Piero Gasperini left to coach Roma after nine years with the team.

Things have gotten better since Raffaele Palladino took over, but he hasn't been able to beat Inter. Atalanta has lost to them nine times in a row.

Palladino tried something new, putting Mario Pasalic in the forward line to stop Inter from playing through Hakan Calhanoglu. It didn't work, partly because Piotr Zielinski played well with Calhanoglu.

In the end, Lautaro made the difference. And Pio Esposito, too. Scoring might be the hardest part, but Pio Esposito's smart pass showed he has good instincts.

Lautaro has always supported Pio Esposito, praising his talent and work ethic. He's asked people to be patient with him. We have to give him space to grow, Lautaro said. I think he's going to be great for us and for the Italian national team.

For now, Lautaro is happy to carry the load of scoring the goals that keep Inter in the lead. He's still a player who people have different opinions about, but Inter is happy to have him. Besides being one of the top scorers in Serie A, he also scored a lot of goals in the Champions League. Losing the final of that competition hurts, but many players never even get there.

Lautaro, Inter’s captain, was upset about losing against PSG in the Champions League final and couldn't talk about it for days. He played through an injury to be there, and the summer started badly with rumors of a fight between him and Calhanoglu.

Only Inter's players and coaches know if they've gotten over the disappointment of not winning any of the four trophies they were chasing last season, but Lautaro seems to be back to his best physically. When asked if Inter’s fitness coach deserved some credit, Lautaro said, “It’s all the staff.” Time passes, I worked hard to get back, and they push me to be even better.”