When there are impossible missions in football, the name of Claudio Ranieri always ends up coming to the fore. And so Giovanni Malagò, in an attempt to restore Italian football to its former heights, has considered entrusting the role of technical director of the national team to this globe-trotting Roman, who is almost 75 years old.
A daunting yet fascinating undertaking for someone who has won so much and done so everywhere in sport. After all, one of Ranieri's nicknames is 'Mr Wolf', the character made famous by the film 'Pulp Fiction': he is the solver of impossible problems in which the protagonists of Quentin Tarantino's film find themselves. The problem facing Italian football is returning to winning ways. And Ranieri will need to lend a hand to head coach Roberto Mancini.
The role of technical director with the national team represents the pinnacle of a life entirely devoted to football: as a player at the modest Catanzaro, an extraordinary protagonist in Serie A during the 1970s; to his exploits on the benches of Cagliari, Napoli, Juventus, Valencia, the wealthy Chelsea, the surprising Leicester and, of course, his beloved Roma. In this latter case too, he was called upon at the last minute in 2024 to salvage a disastrous season which, thanks to his intervention, was closing with an unexpected Champions League qualification. It is worth retracing his professional journey.
Having developed as a footballer at Roma, he made his Serie A debut in 1973. But it was at Catanzaro that he became a club icon, making over 120 Serie A appearances for them. Around the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, he took Cagliari from Serie C to Serie A with two consecutive promotions. He then moved to Napoli where he secured qualification for the UEFA Cup. With Fiorentina he achieved promotion to Serie A and the Coppa Italia in 1996. In 1990 he won the Copa del Rey in Spain with Valencia. In 2000 he joined Chelsea where he achieved a second-place finish in the Premier League and a Champions League semi-final. He returned to Valencia, with whom he won the UEFA Super Cup in 2004. He then came back to Italy where he managed Parma, Juventus, Roma and Inter.
In France with Monaco he won Ligue 2 and finished second in Ligue 1. He also became head coach of Greece. When his career seemed to be winding down, along came "the Leicester City fairy tale." In the 2015/2016 season he led the small club to win the Premier League, one of the greatest achievements in the competition's history. His name entered the Treccani encyclopaedia. Then came Nantes and Fulham. In 2019 he returned to Roma, then went to Samp, to Watford. His most recent experience was keeping Cagliari up in 2023-2024. From 2024 to 2026 he was back at Roma, first as manager and then as senior advisor. Three months ago, when asked about a possible move to the national team, he replied: "Never say never. If you get the call, you just have to say yes."
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA
