Claudio Ranieri: how is the coach who loves Gianluca Lapadula, told by Chemo del Solar

Chemo del Solar calls that man, Claudio Ranieri, a few months in which he directed it 34 years ago, General Romano, still today.

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1997. Ranieri was 47 years old and Chemo was 30. Let’s say they met but they did not coincide: Del Solar had arrived in Valencia from Spain at the hands of Jorge Valdano, who knew him from Tenerife, and Ranieri came to replace him after a campaign that did not save relationship with the cracks he led: Ortega, Piojo López and the Brazilian Romario. He was ranked 10th in the Liga BBVA. Valdano had to go.

Ranieri was signed – like Cagliari now, a few months ago – for his firefighter spirit. And because of the memory of that one from 1989, when he was promoted with Caglari from Serie C to Serie B. The magazine Panenka from Spain wrote this about the work style of today’s Peruvian coach Lapadula. “In Leicester he convinced Vardy that he was the fastest athlete on the planet, Morgan that it was not necessary to look like a footballer, it was enough to be one, and Mahrez told him that they were no longer going to call him the Algerian Messi, but that Messi was going to call him the Argentine Mahrez”. He has that gift, conviction.

Hug:

I go back to 97. With the new coach, Chemo played little and had to go to Turkey. But as it happens with the technicians who leave their mark, there is not a single word of reproach from the current head of the FPF’s Technical Unit for Minors with the Italian, who has just made history with Cagliari where Julio César Uribe once played La Cuchara . This is the memory of him.

“Claudio Ranieri is a great person and always a great coach. Not now: he has already been champion with Leicester in England. Always. He has a philosophy of watching football and he always applies it, he doesn’t give up on that and I think that should be applauded. When he coaches, he knows that he must get the most out of his players. Despite the fact that I played very little with him in Valencia, the relationship was magnificent, I have beautiful memories of him”, Del Solar told DT El Comercio.

In 2010, in a note with this supplement, the Italian coach of Leicester defined Del Solar as “a great South American footballer”.

“Ranieri is very strict with discipline and professionalism. That is not negotiated and I think it works for all teams, not just in Europe. Discipline does not change. In the locker room we called him the ‘General Romano’, because of how strict he always was, ”explains Del Solar.

So it is with coaches who teach. And now Lapadula, the scorer of the Italian promotion with 25 goals, knows it well. “Mister Ranieri made us feel like family. This is the great merit of him ”, said Sunday night, the day Sardinia didn’t sleep. An epic phrase, from a soldier who deserved that post war hug from this Roman General.