Claudio Ranieri may have achieved his first top-tier title in three decades in management but the man who helped inspire Leicester has admitted a tough start to his career in Italy nearly made him give up coaching.
With the Premier League trophy in his hands, Ranieri buried the notion he was eternally the bridesmaid after second-place finishes at Roma, Juventus and Monaco. The 64-year-old Italian’s first teams were the amateur side Vigor Lamezia in Calabria in 1986 and then Puteolana near Naples, and he considered packing the job in, only to be saved by an outbreak of player power and a measure of good fortune.
“Yes of course,” said Ranieri when asked if had contemplated his future outside football. “At the beginning at Puteolana and Lamezia, I was top of the league without losing any match but there was something strange that I didn’t like – I don’t want to tell you what – and I said: ‘Bye bye, I’m going home.’ And I left. The second year started more or less the same. I took a little team Puteolana in Serie C without players: I played one match with 10 players, if I remember well, not 11.
“But you know, something strange arrived and they sacked me. And I said: ‘This is not my job, I love the pitch, I love football but there is so much politics and I am not a politics man. I’m a clear man.’ So I said: ‘It’s not my job.’ Then they sacked again the other two coaches. And they also changed the owner. And the owner called me back to finish the season. They were already relegated but the players said: ‘We want Claudio again.’ And then I was waiting and suddenly I received a call from Cagliari because we beat Cagliari – it as a little team against a giant because Cagliari was a big team for Serie C – and from that, easy!”
