Claudio Ranieri was 64 when he won his first and only top-flight title – but boy, was it worth the wait. The affable Roman is indelibly linked to Leicester’s Premier League triumph, one of the most unexpected feats in sporting history, which earned him The Best FIFA Men’s Coach award in 2016.
Famed for his friendly coaching style, Ranieri raised the bar of expectation little by little in that unforgettable spring, lifting his unfancied side while somehow easing the pressure from within. The results were remarkable.
But reducing Ranieri to a single – if incredible – achievement would do him a disservice. He stunned Italian football with Cagliari and rode a rollercoaster in Spain, ending Valencia’s 19-year trophy drought before suffering with Atletico Madrid, then left his imprint on a transformed Chelsea. Later, he returned to Serie A and could smell the 2009-10 Scudetto with his beloved Roma, only for his dream to evaporate cruelly in the season’s final half-hour.
Ranieri has endured darker days (the Greek national side, Fulham, Watford…) but the 70-year-old has always lit up press rooms and never lost his good manners on and off the pitch. Today, FFT meets a true gentleman typically merry and enthusiastic to go though your questions – even if he does have to bite back at a Premier League icon…
Claudio, where did the phrase ‘dilly ding dilly dong’ come from? I still use it at work instead of swearing.
Ian Leask, via Facebook
It’s something I used to say when my daughter was a child! [Laughs] When she did something wrong, I’d just go, ‘Dilly ding dilly dong’ like the sound of a bell, to wake her up. I’ve always used it, at home and with players. I gave my Cagliari team a big bell as a present. In the first two years, we were promoted twice from Serie C to Serie A, so you could say they really woke up!
I’ve seen a great Panini sticker of you, but you weren’t in Roma’s first team for very long. What can you tell us about your playing career?
Jack Conway, Dudley
That was in 1973. I never was a great player but I always gave my all to deliver what managers asked. I did have some good seasons, though: I won promotion from Serie B with Catanzaro twice and played in Serie A with them, and at Catania we topped Serie B for a while and went on to play top-flight football. At the end of my professional career, I’d already decided I would become a manager, so I joined Palermo in the third tier to understand that reality, too. We won the league in my first season
