Milan (AFP)
Seasoned coach Claudio Ranieri bid farewell to his club Cagliari, and brought down the curtain on a coaching career that lasted nearly four decades, after losing to its guest Fiorentina 3-2, at the opening of the 38th and final stage of the Italian Football League.
Ranieri, 72, announced his retirement after he contributed to keeping Cagliari in the first division, leading them to fifteenth place with 36 points.
The club’s fans raised a banner reading, “Eternal gratitude to a wonderful man,” and chanted Ranieri’s name, amid warm applause from the fans.
Ranieri began his coaching career in 1986, and quickly led Cagliari to the second division in 1989, one year after assuming the position of coach, before promoting them to the first division in 1990, keeping them among the elite clubs the following year.
The coach said that he made his decision with a “heavy heart,” fearing that he would spoil two wonderful spells with Cagliari if he continued.
Ranieri submitted his resignation after nine matches into the current season, as he only managed to achieve three points, but the club and the players convinced him to stay after he led them to the first division following his appointment in January 2023.
“What we were able to achieve, we did together,” he said in a brief interview after the match.
He added, “I asked for your help a year and a half ago because only with you can we do what we did.”
In turn, player Gianluca Lapadula told the DAZN streaming network, “He taught us valuable things not only on the field, but in life in general.”
He added, “If you do not fight for your colleague, the man who stands next to you, you will not achieve anything.”
Ranieri is famous for leading Leicester City to the English Premier League title for the first time in its history in 2016. He is also considered a beloved figure in many of the clubs he has coached, even if he has not achieved many titles.
He won the Italian Cup with Fiorentina (1996), the King’s Cup (1999), and the European Super Cup (2004) with Valencia, Spain.
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