Former Bradford City forward Benito Carbone has applied for the managerial vacancy at the Bantams, according to Sky Sports reporter Lyall Thomas.

The League Two side sacked Derek Adams on Tuesday morning despite only appointing him over the summer, with the Scot departing Valley Parade after picking up just nine wins out of a possible 37 matches in all competitions.

And Carbone wants to replace Adams in the dugout some 20 years after departing the club as a player, with his last managerial job coming in his native Italy with Ternana between 2016 and 2017.

Carbone held a staff role at Leeds United in 2014 under Massimo Cellino's ownership and he was set to manage the club's under-21's, only to depart in August of that year for personal reasons.

In more recent times since his last managerial role at Ternana, Carbone has been the assistant manager to Gianni De Biasi for the Azerbaijan national team since 2020 but he appears eager to finally land a managerial role in England and at one of his former clubs.

The Italian has expressed an interest multiple times in returning to another ex-club in Sheffield Wednesday and now he wants to take over at Bradford, where he played at between 2000 and 2002 and scored 10 league goals in 42 appearances.

The Verdict

Carbone has seemingly long held a desire to manage in England and he has come out multiple times when the Sheffield Wednesday job has been vacant to state his interest.

But this is the first known time that he's wanted to return to the Bantams after 20 years away and he does hold some experience.

It would probably be a major risk though going for someone who has only been a first-team manager in Italy - it sounds cliche but Bradford probably need someone who knows how to get promotion in England.

There's no doubting that Carbone has experience though - he's an assistant to a national team manager, albeit it is only Azerbaijan, but he was a fan favourite at Valley Parade and would likely be a popular appointment.