Claudio Ranieri will not be the new coach of the Italian national soccer team. He was considered the declared candidate of the association of association leader Gabriele Gravina.
The 73-year-old, most recently coach of the world champion Mat Hummel at AS Rome, refrains from the offer to succeed the released Luciano Spalletti. “I would like to thank the head of the association for the honor. But I decided to assist AS Rome as a consultant and to fulfill this order”said Ranieri at the Italian news agency Ansa.
Roma owner Dan Friedkin gave him the opportunity to accept the offer, but he decided to do without it, explained Ranieri. The 73-year-old was the favorite for the successor of the unsuccessful Luciano Spalletti, who was playing his last game on the coaching bank on Monday at the World Cup qualification game against Moldova, which the “Azzurri” won 2-0.
Ranieri took over the Roma for the third time in November and took the capital club to fifth. Then he announced the end of his coaching career, Ranieri only wants to help as a consultant – it remains with this project. The coach, whose greatest success of the surprising championship title in 2016 in the English Premier League with Leicester City was, after the ascent with Cagliari Calcio, had already announced his farewell last year before he was appointed again as a replacement for coach Ivan Juric.
World Cup qualification endangered
After the 0: 3 misstep in the World Cup qualification in Norway, Spalletti reported on Sunday that he would be released against Moldova after the second game. Association leader Gravina, who, despite the hard criticism after the disappointing round of 16 in Germany against Switzerland, recorded Spalletti, is under enormous pressure: Because Norway in Group I is already more nine in group I, the way to the playoffs is threatened with the World Cup ticket-and possibly the third World Championship as a viewer.