Claudio Ranieri

Claudio Ranieri (Italian: [ˈklaudjo raˈnjeːri, -ˈnjɛː-]; born 20 October 1951) is an Italian former professional football manager and player who is the senior advisor of Serie A club Roma. As manager of Leicester City, he won the 2015–16 Premier League, a feat regarded as one of the greatest shocks in sporting history. Ranieri began his managerial career in the lower leagues in Italy during the late 1980s, making his name at Cagliari, whom he took from Serie C1 up to Serie A in successive seasons. He subsequently managed Napoli, with which he qualified for the UEFA Cup, only to be dismissed the following season. In 1993, he joined Fiorentina, and immediately led them to Serie A promotion, also winning the Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa Italiana in 1996, before moving to Spain in 1997, to manage Valencia and then Atlético Madrid. With Valencia, he won a Copa del Rey and an UEFA Intertoto Cup, and helped the club to lay new foundations that led them to qualify for the UEFA Champions League. In 2000, Ranieri moved to England to become head coach at Chelsea. His four seasons there saw Chelsea improve their points total season on season. After substantial investment in the squad by new owner Roman Abramovich in the summer of 2003, Ranieri led the team to finish runners-up in 2004 and reaching the Champions League semi-final the same season. He was dismissed by Abramovich that May- and Chelsea went on to win successive titles under their next coach, Jose Mourinho. After an unsuccessful second spell back in Spain with Valencia, he returned to management in Italy in 2007, where he encountered mixed success with spells at Parma, Juventus, Roma and Inter Milan. In 2012, he was hired to manage Ligue 1 team Monaco, who had just finished in the middle of Ligue 2, and earned promotion as champions in his first season, then finished as Ligue 1 runners-up in his second season. This was followed by a foray into international management with the Greece national team, but he was dismissed less than four months later after a 1–0 home defeat against the Faroe Islands in the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying. Ranieri returned to England once more in the summer of 2015 as manager of Leicester City. He went on to win the 2015–16 Premier League, after the club had narrowly avoided relegation the season prior, and was named the 2016 Premier League Manager of the Season, and LMA Manager of the Year. He was also awarded the Grand Officer of the Italian Order of Merit and the Enzo Bearzot Award as best Italian manager of the year, as well as the 2016 Best FIFA Men's Coach Award. He was dismissed by the club in February 2017 after a run of poor results. He has subsequently managed Nantes, Fulham, Roma, Sampdoria, and Watford. In June 2023, he won promotion to Serie A in a second spell with Cagliari, after beating Bari 1–2 in the playoffs. After leaving Cagliari, he announced his retirement from club management but reversed his decision to take charge of Roma for a third spell in November 2024, guiding them to an eventual fifth place finish before taking up a senior advisory role at the club.