Ranieri gave him a standing ovation in the farewell game, and it is difficult to have such a good "tinkerer" in football

Beiqing Sports

2024-05-24 08:32Published on the official account of Beijing Beiqing Sports News

In the final round of Serie A in the early morning of the 24th, Beijing time, Cagliari lost 2-3 at home to Fiorentina, although they lost the game, but for the home team, the departure of a person is far more reluctant and sad than the loss of 3 points. Ranieri, the veteran coach who led the team to relegation this season, ended his coaching career and officially retired. After the game, Ranieri also gave a heartfelt farewell speech to the fans. According to the data, Ranieri has played a total of 912 games in Europe's top five leagues, second only to Arsene Wenger's 988.

Since Ranieri had already announced that he would be retiring at the end of the season, the home fans of Cagliari expressed their sincere gratitude to the veteran coach in this farewell match, and the fans unfurled a banner: "Thank you to the great man forever, thank you, coach." And before the game, all the fans at the home stadium of Cagliari, the players of both teams, the coaches of both teams, and the referees all stood up and applauded Ranieri.

After the match, Cagliari FC held a farewell ceremony for Ranieri at home. Claudio Ranieri hugged all the Cagliari players one by one, and then the famous veteran coach of Italian football said what he said: "I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. We owe it to you that we have been able to achieve our goals. When I come back here to coach, I ask you for help, because only with your support will we be able to achieve what we were last season (promotion) and this season (relegation). You're doing a great job and the players are doing a great job. After these touching speeches, Ranieri circled the pitch with his grandson and the entire Cagliari squad to bid farewell to the fans one last time. Ranieri was also moved by the applause and cheers of the audience.

Fans familiar with Serie A will be familiar with Ranieri's name, having started his coaching career 36 years ago with the Italian team, and it was Cagliari that his dream began. In the summer of 1988, at the age of 37, Ranieri took over Cagliari, which was in the lower leagues, and no one expected that it would take him only two seasons to help the team be promoted from Serie C to Serie A, and Ranieri made a name for himself in Italian football.

However, after taking over as Napoli manager in 1991, he did not achieve as much success as in Cagliari, although he successively became the manager of many teams including Fiorentina, Valencia, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Juventus, Inter Milan, Monaco and so on, but most of the time he was the "mess" left behind by the previous manager, which earned him the nickname "tinker".

Of course, for many young fans, Ranieri knows more about him from his time in charge of Leicester City in the Premier League. In the summer of 2015, he took over the "Foxes", who had just been relegated, and no one expected that in the following 2015-16 season, he would lead this little-known team to win the Premier League, which also shocked the football world and made him a generation of famous coaches. But in the years that followed, he continued to play the familiar role of "tinkerer" as before, saving teams from different leagues again and again.

And when he returned to Cagliari at the end of 2022, the team was going through a period of great darkness. At the time, Cagliari were only 14th in Serie B and their form continued to be sluggish. But after the old coach came to the team, he immediately injected new vitality into the team. Under Claudio Ranieri's leadership, Cagliari finished fifth in the regular season and finished fifth in the promotion play-offs, and eliminated Venezia, Parma and Barry along the way. This season, the team completed relegation ahead of schedule, giving Ranieri a big gift to retire.

Text/Beiqing Sports Zhang Kunlong

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