Italian soccer legend Claudio Ranieri is back on the AS Roma bench for the third time in his career after the 73-year-old announced his retirement last May after avoiding relegation with Cagliari, the club announced. Ranieri, who most notably won the Premier League in 2016 with Leicester City, is back in the Italian Serie A after AS Roma American owner Dan Friedkin decided to appoint him after sacking both Daniele De Rossi and Ivan Juric in less than two months into the 2024-25 season.
Ranieri was selected to drive this team in an incredibly difficult moment and became the Roma manager for the third time in his career. He was born in Rome in 1951 and then played for team when he was a soccer player in the 1970s. After that, he came back on the Roma bench in 2009 where he almost won the 2009-10 title before losing it in the last game of the season. Then, he left the job in 2011 before making his return in 2019 after the sacking of Eusebio Di Francesco as caretaker manager until the end of the season. This will be his third comeback at the club, who appointed him until the end of the 2024-25 season.
After that, Ranieri will be an advisor to the owners, and will also be part of the deciding process for the new coach, as the statement announced: “At the conclusion of the season, Claudio will transition into a senior executive role, where he will be an adviser to the ownership on all sporting matters at the club. The search for a future coach will proceed over the next months. Claudio will have input in that decision as well.”
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The last time Ranieri was on the AS Roma bench, on May 2019, it was a different world. The Giallorossi faced Parma in their last game of the season at the Stadio Olimpico, while the Roma fans were celebrating two iconic figures of their club after a challenging season: Daniele De Rossi and Claudio Ranieri. The first one played his last match for the club he played for his whole life, before ending his professional career at Boca Junior. The second one was celebrated as he helped again his club after a challenging season, but nobody that night could imagine he could be back on the same bench a few weeks after the shocking sacking of the same De Rossi.
The Friedkins looked for multiple managers over the past days as they were also helped by the CAA Base agency to find the new coach. Multiple candidates were scanned, including Roberto Mancini, Graham Potter, Edin Terzic and Vincenzo Montella, but at the end they opted to appoint a manager who knows this environment better than anyone else, and can also help them to get closer again to the fanbase, that is currently really disappointed after the two sackings of Jose Mourinho and Daniele De Rossi in less than nine months.
The Ranieri move is quite similar to the one made last January when De Rossi was appointed: a man, and a manager, who can’t be questioned by the fans, and knows how to put together the environment when things are not working at all. Juric wasn’t able to do that and was not even given the time to adapt. He probably couldn’t understand the AS Roma fanbase as Ranieri certainly does so well, and this is what now counts the most. At the same time, the fact Ranieri will stay as an advisor starting from next summer is a sort of assurance for everyone: the fans, the players and the owners. When he was called in March 2019, Ranieri said: “I couldn’t say no to this club, I couldn’t say no to these people.” This is exactly what happened five years later. Roma needed Ranieri, and he couldn’t say no.
