Claudio Ranieri - a little-known Italian footballer, and then the coach, a mid-range specialist. Despite all his failures and inconclusive results, in 2016 this man created a real miracle for Leicester fans and attracted the attention of the whole world.
Biography
In 1951, on October 20, in the city of Rome, the future football player and coach, Claudio Ranieri, was born. From early childhood, he began to play football, in 1971 he got into the youth academy of the capital's club "Roma", a year later he was already in the first team.
True, for a long time in the composition he could not gain a foothold, in two seasons he went on the field only 6 times. Then there was a series of little-known clubs of the second and third division. The only achievement of Ranieri-footballer is a victory in the third most important tournament of Italy in the composition of “Palermo”.
Coaching career
Having played two seasons in “Palermo”, Claudio ended his football career and decided to try his hand at the coaching bridge. The first team in the biography of the coach was the club "Vigor Lamezia", but he did not achieve much success there. And the first significant achievement Ranieri received in FC Cagliari, which he was able to withdraw from the third division of the country in Serie A for 3 seasons, the main tournament in Italy, and managed to gain a foothold there.
After such success, a large series of faded appearances and setbacks began. The clubs led by Claudio Ranieri experienced a slight rise at the very beginning of his work, but then there was a long recession, as a result of which the trainers were fired. From 1991 until 2015, Ranieri changed 11 clubs and even managed to train the national team of Greece, but did not stay there for a long time. Under his leadership, Greece had only 4 matches, without winning a single one.
July 13, 2015 a significant event took place not only for the loser coach, but for the whole of England. On this day, Ranieri agreed on a contract with a return to the Leicester City Premier League in 2014. By the middle of the season, the club had become one of the leaders of the championship, and by the end of 2015 it took second place. Continuing to gain momentum, in the 23rd round, the Ranieri team led the standings.
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 to the Chelsea neighbors in the London derby. Thus, two rounds before the end of the championship, Leicester City became the champion ahead of schedule, and this became a real sensation. The team, led by Ranieri, gained a huge army of fans, they spoke and wrote about their success on every corner.
But unfortunately, as always, Ranieri could not consolidate his success, and in the next game season, everything began to deteriorate sharply. The team lost points match after match, and then simply fought for the right to remain in the Premier League. In the Champions League, in which the team got thanks to last year's championship, “Leicester” was able to leave the group, but despite this, the irreversible dismissal process was started, and the first playoff match was the last for the coach.
This event literally blew up the football community, coaches, footballers, football fans - all criticized the club 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 already in June signed a contract for 2 years with the French club Nantes.
