Impossible to resist the national team call: the former Giallorossi technician will be blue coach, but will remain personal adviser to Friedkin
With Claudio Ranieri we can really talk about everything. Always and without filters, because – in a often trivial world – he has chosen to tell and be told without filters. With his enthusiasm, his classic laugh, his eyes tightened to become an asle. He also made three years ago, on the stage of the Trento Festival, retracing the stages of a wonderful career – for results and style – which however had not been completed at all. He spoke of Cagliari (“Mother”), of Rome (“The wife”), perhaps imagining that she would return there, where she had started. The fact is – and for a fairy tale you have to have a beautiful imagination – that two months later they called him back to Sardinia, to write other chapters. Of a book, his life as a great coach, still full of surprises. Because – it is incredible to rethink us now – after Cagliari the Giallorossi call has also arrived. Claudio Ranieri could not imagine, who – definitively closed his story with the clubs – would also have reopened the national door. He could not imagine it until yesterday afternoon, when the phone rang between one set and the other between Alcaraz and Sinner, with a special load of emotion. Because from which moment he continued to tell him, in the family, with that involvement that only the lovers of their profession – and of the blue – can try. It’s not easy, sure. But how do I say no? I would say it to myself. To me Roma fan and national team fan. Can I ever back down?
Ranieri, double role with Rome and national?
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Yes, because Friedkin gave approval to the double role: technical commissioner and personal councilor of the president. A hypothesis that could also be good for the Federation. On the other hand, the history of the ball is full of examples and precedents much more bulky. Sir Alex Ferguson was Manchester United coach and at the same time Scotland selector. Michels did the same with Barcelona and Holland. Dividing between two benches. In this case, in the case of Ranieri, the thing would be much less artificial. Councilor of Dan Friedkin and national team coach. “Come on Claudio, let’s see if someone would be able to doubt good faith in case I called a Roma player …”. Also on this he joked, last night, between one scope and another. Jokes, already, why on certain topics – True Claudio? – You can only go back. So what? So what is and what could be the problem? Just a wire of embarrassment to tell those, Gian Piero Gasperini in the lead, with whom he shared these days. But if you think about it and think about it, in the end only one question remains: but how do you say no to Italy?
Yes, it is an almost impossible mission to resist the call of our national team. Because if Cagliari is the mother and Roma is his wife, Italy – it’s true, Claudio – it is us. That’s why the night must have been full of thoughts, reflections, but it is very hard only to imagine it: how do you say no to ourselves? To a task – and this can easily recognize him anyone who knows his story – which seems to be made on purpose for his profile. Because Ranieri has a fabulous international experience. He is the man of the most extraordinary feat with a club, because you do not win in the premier with Leicester if you have no ideas, quality, if you cannot create a group and become the leader. And because, if you think about it, he is the first who makes no difference between the coach and the selector. Which is a bit the border between two ways of thinking about football. Because Ranieri trained his teams every day without ever believing that he can replace players and without ignoring, consequently, the condition of the moment. It happened again this year, in the fabulous Giallorossi run -up: everyone appeared and reappeared according to their “inspiration”. And it is from here that we start again. Because you can’t say no to blue. And then – Claudio, don’t joke – there is a world championship to save. In the family they will understand.
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