Football in Italy: Claudio Ranieri is coaching AS Roma for the third time

Almost a week has now passed since hope returned to Rome at Fiumicino Airport. A crowd of people dressed in red and yellow gathered at Terminal 3 on a Wednesday evening in November to catch a glimpse of the man they know very well in the Eternal City: it was actually Claudio Ranieri getting off a plane , which had brought him from London to Rome, where tumults had taken place in the previous weeks – which now erupted in redeemed songs.

“Claudio Ranieri, eh-eh-oh-oh,” sang the Tifosi, who played it Mister in a wild crowd, not intrusive to take photos, but full of admiration. With this arrival they set the tone that has determined events in Rome ever since; it was a new unity. Everything will be fine, because: “Claudio Ranieri is one of us” – he is one of us.

For the third time in his career, Ranieri, 73, is now a coach at AS Roma, but at the same time he is also the third coach to lead the exercises at the Trigoria site this season. Which says a lot about why the Tifosi seem so relaxed. One of them Daniele De Rossi was also the coach until mid-September, whom the fans would have forgiven a lot, but who was overconfidently thrown out by the club’s committees. This degenerated into a mutiny-like situation; CEO Lina Souloukou was met with massive hostility from fans and resigned shortly afterwards.

A solution had to be found quickly in the coaching position, and because the owner family from the USA, the Friedkins, made the wrong decision in a hurry, chaos broke out: Ivan Juric, who in every respect was the same, only lasted 53 days The opposite of Ranieri was because no one really trusted him from day one and he didn’t stand for the good old days – but for honest football in the here and now, which led Roma to twelfth place in the Serie A. His dismissal was logical.

Ranieri comes from a working-class neighborhood; his parents ran a butcher shop

For once, however, the Friedkins were well advised, which doesn’t happen often, from people who understand Rome and Romanismo, the world of the Roma. Ranieri is the greatest possible pacifier of the Romanisti’s hearts because of his special history.

Ranieri comes from Testaccio, a working-class district of Rome, very centrally located between the Aventine and the Tiber. His parents had a butcher shop there. Testaccio is a mythical place for the supporters; the old Roma stadium used to stand here: the Campo Testaccio. “Campo Testaccio” is also the title of a famous song that fans belt out at the Olimpico before every home game. When José Mourinho became Roma coach, a mural was found in Testaccio showing the Portuguese on a Vespa with a yellow and red scarf around his neck. Mourinho was thus adopted by the fans. Ranieri doesn’t need that, he’s a son of the city. To this day he is called “Romano di Testaccio”, which is a kind of superlative: more Roman than most Romans.

And he is a Romanista himself. Ranieri grew up in the club’s youth ranks and was actually supposed to become a striker. He made his career as a defender, far away from home, in Catanzaro, Calabria – and later, above all, as a coach. He moved through the international football world over the course of his career and, among other things, won a legendary Premier League title with Leicester City. But in Rome people longed for him back because he had already performed a miracle in his first term in office at the beginning of the 2000s. Back in September 2009, after the second matchday of the new season, with zero points, Luciano Spalletti gave up. It was supposed to be Roma’s best league season in recent memory, they almost won the title, it would have been their fourth. In the end, Inter, with José Mourinho, won.

Ranieri also went down in history at the time because he once replaced Francesco Totti and De Rossi, the club’s most important standard-bearers, the captain and the “Capitano futuro” at half-time in a derby against Lazio – a sacrilege, actually unforgivable. Ranieri later said that the two had been overexcited, both had already been warned, and that it couldn’t have ended well. He also said that so loosely and freely because Rome had turned the game around and won. In February 2011, Ranieri threw out when his Roma lost a 3-4 game in Genoa after leading 3-0. He is still given great credit for this resignation, as a selfless gesture.

He came back in 2019 and once again the club was in trouble. And Ranieri couldn’t say no because you never say no to your heart. “If Roma calls, then I have to say yes,” he said at the time, and he repeated the sentence almost word for word at his first press conference, in which Ranieri’s enthusiasm for the task was palpable. His approach was warm, he addressed with particular caution the problem children he would like to reintegrate – the recently injured striker Paolo Dybala and the hapless Mats Hummels, whom Ranieri praised highly. Due to injuries, it is still unclear whether both will play on Sunday, in the difficult away game against league leaders Napoli. But unlike last time, it is clear: you belong to Ranieri’s team – and therefore also to the city.

Now he is leading Roma again, from the sidelines, where he no longer wanted to be. Ranieri had a wonderful farewell last summer in Cagliari after what was supposed to be his last stop in Sardinia. Homages appeared in the newspapers to this gentleman of calcio, whom they called not only Mister but also Sir Claudio. In long interviews he looked back, satisfied with his career, everything was good and smooth. But then the Roma called again in need, the Friedkins, but above all the Romanisti – and he couldn’t say no again. He is one of them.