From the project to the idea, Zola wants to do it this way.
The crisis in Italy is total. For the third time in a row, they failed to qualify for the World Cup, and everyone has an opinion on what should happen next. After a few particularly chaotic weeks, the “appraiser” finally enters the national team – not as a coach, but with the task of fixing the technical sector.
To get to Trigoria, you had to cross Rome from north to south and defy the traffic. To get to Via Allegri, he could walk a quarter of an hour, cut a piece of Villa Borghese and enter the building of the Football Association. Home and workshop inside the Parioli district for the last big challenge of an epic career.
Claudio Ranieri had smelled Malagò’s vocation in recent days and kept his promise the moment he received it. “I could never refuse the national team,” he had said to people close to him, repeating the content of an interview from a couple of months ago : “Coach or technical director, nothing changes. I had to retire when I was in Rome, but now I am free to do as I please. Whether that will happen, I don’t know, but never say never.”
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Malagòs announcement
“Mancini is the best possible coach, Ranieri will be the technical director.”
Ranieri said yes without thinking for a second. He prepared a tram, followed step by step by his wife Rosanna, and hurriedly left the magnificent estate of Stalettì overlooking the Calabria Sea to catch the last flight from Lamezia Terme.
He doesn’t want to be a coach – a position he had to give up after Spalletti’s departure because Dan Friedkin didn’t give him permission to play the dual role. But he will continue to work behind the scenes, as happened to him in Rome, before the break with Gasperini and the traumatic farewell to his favorite team. Now he will become technical director and president of the Italian club – a recognition of the competence and style of a world-class character.
Analogies
Ranieri embraces the national team for the first time and blesses Roberto Mancini’s return. Mancini was instead opposed by Maldini, during the same emergencies he has often been used to dealing with. This time, the role is different, in fact unique, because it will not be able to influence substitutions or market intuitions.
But the task is similar: Ranieri will be an appraiser, within a pariolic matrix project that first and foremost ensures the restoration of normality. He wants to be much more than an ambassador for the national team. He will of course face Malagò, but he will enjoy absolute decision-making autonomy in the reorganization of his area of responsibility.
The federation must rethink from scratch. The choice of players who can be called up is the least of the problems. And he, Sir Claudio, is ready to make his experience and common sense available to all the national teams, providing useful information for a total reorganization.
Even the manager who could have supported him in his work, Gianfranco Zola, is not a random person. Ranieri led him to Chelsea at the time of Magic Box, considering him one of the strongest and most intelligent players he has ever coached.
Profile
Roman and spacious like Malagò, of course. But also a figure who could unite a traditionally divisive world. Ranieri is the classic name that everyone agrees on. It is difficult, this time, to find a politician or a fan who can turn up their noses at his entry into the club.
Be careful, then. We are talking about a mature man who has never been afraid to make strong – or even unpopular – decisions. He has accomplished amazing feats, from the title with Leicester to the rescue of Parma all the way up to the incredible fifth place with Roma on the brink of relegation. Precisely because he has always managed to value us in spite of I.
Grand final
Ranieri believed he deserved a peaceful retirement after his last adventure in Cagliari. He had brought them back to Serie A with the miracle Bari and then stayed afloat with a thrilling championship. But his project of “sitting on a bench in the park with my grandchildren” is postponed once again.
One of his dreams was to take a prestigious position in the Football Association – and he succeeded. And if Ranieri wants a garden where he can relax with his young heirs, Villa Borghese is just around the corner. His home country will give him some small regenerating stops on the way to the World Cup.
Kasper Høgh broke down when he said goodbye to Bodø/Glimt
