Sometimes it is true that “we are history”, which happens that time even the most capricious fate takes off its hat because it cheated you for a long time but in the end it understood who you are. Sir Claudio Ranieri, baronet of Leicester and Roman of Testaccio, “Er fettina”, “Mr. Tinkerman”, has been through a lot, but has always remained the same. A gentleman. A gentleman of sport that has some story to tell. This is why he returned to Cagliari, where it all beganthe first miracle, from Serie C to Serie A, at the end of the 80s, a lifetime ago, when the Berlin Wall was still there and then it was gone, Dustin Hoffman did Rain Man and Gianni Morandi sang One in a thousand makes it, and he had done it. He left here, from this miracle, and here he returned, to the happy island, to give back everything he had.
Sir Claudio is above all this, a true gentleman, and there aren’t many like him. He cried, scolded his fans who booed or teased their opponents, and stood looking at the sky, with his posture, back straight and head held high. Welcome back sir. When she cried in the arms of the doctor, Michele Mignani, the Bari coach who had just seen Serie A fade away in front of the 60,000 San Nicola crowd two minutes from the end, soaked like a chick in the flood that had come down from that baleful sky, had felt compelled to stand there behind and stroked his sobbing head, and he had done it because we owe someone like that the respect that is due to more than a person. It is due to what he represents. To everything the story tells us about him.
Sir Claudio has come this far passing through life, and there are those who go through it without realizing it or without understanding where they are, and there are those who manage to forget every lesson, but Ranieri no, he has kept everything and has brought in here, in the basin of San Nicola, at this appointment of destiny. There are no fireworks, twinkling lights, stars in the sky, there are no waves of music, nor the big names in entertainment. This is not the Champions League. There’s only sweat, blood and sweat, and provincial stories. He took Cagliari in fourteenth place and it took him five months to get here, to the Serie A play-off. Many things count in a play-off. Destiny also counts, which must look closely at you, which must choose where to push the wind. He has met him many times, he is a Lord who has traveled the world, and by now they have gotten to know each other: fate has given them many blows, it has done them all sorts of things, like the time it took away a scudetto already won with his Roma, the team from the city he has loved since he was child, and slipped it off at his home, in front of his fans drunk with joy, in the temple of the Olimpico. By now they call each other, they sit in a strawberry place and challenge each other with chess, and fate knows that he remains who he is, that even when he loses he keeps his back straight and his head held high.
Even when they insult or tease him. “Only one truth remains intact,” wrote Jack O’Malley. «In English, Italian or French football, whatever team you coach, Claudio Ranieri finishes second». They called it «bollito», that is old, antiquated. They nicknamed him The Tinkerman, the shaky, at the time of Chelsea, to mock his way of approaching things, with some indecision. And before leaving Italy, starting his wanderings around the world, from Spain to England to France, he was “Er fettina”, because of his family’s butcher shop in Testaccio. As soon as she returned she ran to see his Rome, the team of the heart. And then fate played a trick on him with Sampdoria, first letting him win the Scudetto and then taking it away from him, at his house. And he didn’t flinch, back straight and head held high. He took more blows and then went to Leicester, and suddenly performed his miracle, with his cards, nothing but those, a classic 4 4 2, with little possession and very fast, and a paternalistic psychology in an ideal locker room, like Roman camaraderie. This victory ended up illuminating the rest of his career as well. He has become a legend, and that triumph a legend. Leicester has revealed what he had done great in others small big provincial realities, all the teams he has always left in a better place.
He had started coaching from the third category. And fate had learned to know him right away. A hard head, very tenacious and always elegant. Once in Serie C he won against Cagliari and the president of the Sardinians had no doubts: he immediately offered him the bench. He he brought the rossoblu from C1 to Serie A with Enzo Francescoli as his shining star. He once told Sky English that for early morning training he woke up the players with a chant «Dilly dong, dilly dong. Training has begun.” He already had this habit then, at the time of Cagliari. At the end of the season he gave each footballer a bell with that written on the base. That same bell rang at a press conference in Leicester: «We are in the Champions League, dilly dong!».
After Cagliari he began his pilgrimage, Naples, Fiorentina, and then the world, Valencia, Atletico, and the arrival in the Premier League. At Chelsea, 109 victories in just over 180 matches, and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League, beaten by Monaco and therefore kicked out of Stamford Bridge. Destiny was laughing loudly. He wrote his biography: Proud Man Walking, a man walking proud. In this book he explains his view of the coach: a father figure, a father figure who sees a family in the locker room. He was replaced at Chelsea by Mourinho who attacked him several times: “He doesn’t have the mentality of someone who needs to win”. But when he returns to Italy, he continues to win, many miracles one after the other. He takes Parma, with 3 wins in 22 games, and leads them to make a crazy comeback. Reports Juve in the Champions League and conquers the Bernabeu with Del Piero exiting to applause. He wins and is sent away, sometimes in a bad way and without a reason, as happens in Turin. He and destiny are old friends who talk over each other and tease each other. They know each other by heart and he always loses in the end. But when he arrives in Leicester, in that strawberry place with the usual game of chess ahead, it is Ranieri who is screwing him. Even fate ends up bowing.
As when he returns to Cagliari, they joke about it. You can’t do it this time. But he, back straight and head held high, the proud man walking, goes along his path without paying attention to those sneers. And he goes all the way, he wins the play-off with a crazy comeback against Parma and everything is played away from home at San Nicola. When no one believes it anymore, that’s what happens. The sky is torn apart, and it really happens. Sir Claudio can cry now. He owed it to Cagliari, he owed him this part of his life, the successes, the honors, and the tears, all the tears we are not ashamed to shed. Fate knew that this was a special match between them. He joked about it, because that’s how he is, but in the end he agreed. And that caress from Mignani was a bit of him too.