Claudio Ranieri is a little-known Italian footballer, and then a coach, an average specialist. Despite all his failures and inconclusive results, in 2016 this man worked a real miracle for Leicester fans and attracted the attention of the whole world.
Biography
In 1951, on October 20, the future football player and coach, Claudio Ranieri, was born in the city of Rome. From early childhood, he began to play football, in 1971 he got into the youth academy of the capital club "Roma", a year later he was already in the first team.
True, he could not gain a foothold in the squad for a long time, in two seasons he entered the field only 6 times. Then there was a series of little-known clubs in the second and third divisions. The only achievement of Ranieri the football player is a victory in the third most important tournament in Italy with Palermo.
Coaching career
After playing two seasons at Palermo, Claudio ended his football career and decided to try himself on the coaching bridge. The first team in the coach's biography was the Vigor Lamezia club, but he did not achieve much success there. And the first significant achievement Ranieri received in FC Cagliari, which he was able to take from the third division of the country to Serie A, the main tournament of Italy, in 3 seasons, and managed to gain a foothold there.
After such success, a long series of faded performances and failures began. The clubs headed by Claudio Ranieri experienced a slight rise at the very beginning of his work, but then there was a prolonged decline, as a result of which the coach was fired. From 1991 to 2015, Ranieri changed 11 clubs and even managed to train the Greek national team, but did not stay there for long. Under his leadership, Greece played only 4 matches, while not winning a single one.
On July 13, 2015, a significant event took place not only for the failed coach, but for the whole of England. On this day, Ranieri agreed on a contract with Leicester City, who returned to the Premier League in 2014. By the middle of the season, the club became the leader of the championship, and by the end of 2015 it took second place. Continuing to gain momentum, Ranieri's team topped the standings in the 23rd round.
The fate of the championship was decided a few rounds before the end of the season, when the main pursuer and contender for the championship Tottenham Hotspur lost in the London derby to neighbors Chelsea. Thus, two rounds before the end of the championship, Leicester City became the champion ahead of schedule, and it became a real sensation. The team led by Ranieri gained a huge army of fans, their success was talked and written on every corner.
But unfortunately, as always, Ranieri was unable to consolidate his success, and in the next game season everything began to deteriorate sharply. The team lost points match after match, and then just fought for the right to stay in the Premier League. In the Champions League, which the team got into thanks to last year's championship, Leicester were able to leave the group, but despite this, the irreversible process of dismissal was launched, and the first playoff match was the last for the coach.
This event literally blew up the football community, coaches, footballers, football fans - everyone criticized the club's management for the decision to fire the head coach. But this did not affect the fate of Ranieri in the famous Leicester. And soon with compensation of 3.5 million pounds, he left the club. In March of the same year, Claudio Ranieri negotiated with the Russian club Zenit, but in June signed a 2-year contract with the French club Nantes.
Personal life
Outside of football, Claudio is a very humble person, filling his leisure time with reading books and collecting antiques. The family does not in the least condemn the coach's addictions, because his wife Rosanna is an art critic by education, she herself owned a small antiques shop in Rome.
Few people guess, but Ranieri, even in his years, a fit and athletic man is a real gourmet, and he loves meat dishes, as befits a butcher's son. But he does not favor classic Italian pasta in order to preserve its shape.
