Claudio Ranieri

Claudio Ranieri has enjoyed a managerial career that has seen him take charge of 17 different clubs, managing Valencia and Roma twice, and one national side across a period of more than 30 years. There can be few managers currently in the game with as much experience as Ranieri. His big break as a coach came in 1987 with Cagliari, whose fortunes he transformed as he guided the club from Serie C1 to the heights of Serie A in successive seasons. Italian giants Napoli soon came calling for the services of the talented young manager and he led the club to fourth in Serie A before switching to Fiorentina in 1993, where he won the Coppa Italia. A third-placed finish in the league was made even more impressive by a run to the Cup Winners’ Cup semi-finals. He moved to Spain next, where he guided Valencia into the Champions League before switching to Atlético Madrid. He then relocated to England to manage Chelsea in 2000, where he enjoyed an FA Cup final appearance, Champions League football and a second place finish in the Premier League. He returned to Valencia where he clinched victory in the UEFA Super Cup, before moving to Parma and then Juventus. He also narrowly missed out on Serie A title success with Roma in 2010. After a spell with Inter Milan, he led AS Monaco to promotion to Ligue 1 as champions and finished the subsequent season as runners up to PSG in the French title race. Ranieri took over as coach of the Greece national side in 2014, but by July 2015 he had returned to England to take charge of Leicester City. It was perceived that this move would come with a brief of staving off relegation, but confounding expectations Ranieri pulled off one of the greatest shocks in sport when he guided the Foxes to the Premier League title in his first season in charge. It was an achievement that saw him pick up a host of individual accolades, including Premier League Manager of the Season, LMA Manager of the Year, Best FIFA Football Coach, and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award. Ranieri was appointed manager of Nantes in June 2017 and left the club in May the following year. In November 2018 he was announced as the new manager of Fulham but within six months was back at Roma, where he also began his playing career. Having led his hometown club to a Europa League place he switched to Sampdoria, the eighth Serie A club he has managed in his native country, leading them away from relegation danger.