What do you think?
Rate this book
Hail, Claudio!: The Man, the Manager, the Miracle
This is the inside story of the rise and rise of a butcher’s son from Rome whose hard work, passion for the game, and ability to learn from his mistakes have earned him the respect of players, fans, and owners worldwide. Between them, journalists Gabriele Marcotti and Alberto Polveros have known Claudio Ranieri since his early days as a central defender. They followed his successes, failures, and evolution—as a player, manager, and person. From Ranieri’s career as a dogged—if not gifted—player, to the skillful tactics, single-minded focus, and risk-taking transfers that set him apart as a manager at teams like Roma and Chelsea, this is the only in-depth insight into the man behind Leicester City’s Premiership triumph.
320 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2018
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 6, 2024
Really good
November 1, 2018
Insightful background into the man who led Leicester City to the title. Here's a review I wrote of it for WhenSaturdayComes
Reviewed by Rob Kemp
From WSC 360, February 2017
Buy this book
It’s hard to find something bad to say about Claudio Ranieri, but just because something is hard to do doesn’t mean one shouldn’t try. In Hail Claudio! Gabriele Marcotti and fellow journalist Alberto Polverosi do their best to unearth any darker side with “hairdryer” highlights. It soon becomes evident, however, that for every example of “bad cop” there are countless more acts of kindness in the Ranieri backstory to outshine them.
Sure there’s the moment, in his first weeks as boss at Valencia, when Ranieri tears a strip off of Romário for enjoying the Spanish night life a little too much. The authors also unravel the roots of his spat with José Mourinho – revealing that Ranieri unwittingly started it all. But these incidents pale into insignificance when compared to repeated tales of humble self-sacrifice, relayed by former team-mates and charges, stretching back to Ranieri’s debut for Roma in 1973.
Even after playing in front of 80,000 fellow Giallorossi fans the young Ranieri would return to his dad’s butcher’s shop in Testaccio and take the day’s deliveries out on his bike. His first impact as a novice coach at Campania Puteolana was to go out and buy a new kit with his own money – and when the 21-year-old daughter of his former team-mate Ubaldo Novembre dies suddenly Ranieri calls to comfort him for ten days. “I was going through one of the darkest moments of my life and Claudio chose, as his holiday, to spend his time with me to do what he could to alleviate the pain,” Novembre recalls.
Almost as a Plan B Marcotti and Polverosi include a narrative which suggests that the miracle of Leicester City’s Premier League title was a culmination of Ranieri’s experiences as a father figure at Cagliari and Fiorentina, failure with Internazionale and Greece and luckless bridesmaid at Valencia, Chelsea, Roma and Juventus.
There are tales of team-bonding practical jokes and a “dilly ding, dilly dong” bell used to grab players’ attention during training. The signing of Stefan Schwarz at Fiorentina draws an analogy with N’Golo Kanté’s impact at the King Power Stadium while former Serie A and Uruguay striker Daniel Fonseca sums up his success under Ranieri with: “You could say I was the Jamie Vardy of Cagliari.”
Ranieri’s mastery at building title-challenging teams on a budget, especially at Roma, is well documented here – as is Leicester’s success match-by-match – but it’s his treatment at Chelsea that provides the strongest evidence for him being the most deserving of Premier League winners to date. Dropping club hero Dennis Wise, struggling to learn English – provoking Chelsea fans to chant “You don’t know what you’re saying” – and being a trail-blazing “Tinkerman” doesn’t detract from the fact that by blooding John Terry and signing Frank Lampard, William Gallas, Claude Makélélé, Arjen Robben and Petr Cech he created a side that would win the title and give Mourinho his “special” status. Perhaps there is something bad to say about Claudio after all.
Reviewed by Rob Kemp
From WSC 360, February 2017
Buy this book
It’s hard to find something bad to say about Claudio Ranieri, but just because something is hard to do doesn’t mean one shouldn’t try. In Hail Claudio! Gabriele Marcotti and fellow journalist Alberto Polverosi do their best to unearth any darker side with “hairdryer” highlights. It soon becomes evident, however, that for every example of “bad cop” there are countless more acts of kindness in the Ranieri backstory to outshine them.
Sure there’s the moment, in his first weeks as boss at Valencia, when Ranieri tears a strip off of Romário for enjoying the Spanish night life a little too much. The authors also unravel the roots of his spat with José Mourinho – revealing that Ranieri unwittingly started it all. But these incidents pale into insignificance when compared to repeated tales of humble self-sacrifice, relayed by former team-mates and charges, stretching back to Ranieri’s debut for Roma in 1973.
Even after playing in front of 80,000 fellow Giallorossi fans the young Ranieri would return to his dad’s butcher’s shop in Testaccio and take the day’s deliveries out on his bike. His first impact as a novice coach at Campania Puteolana was to go out and buy a new kit with his own money – and when the 21-year-old daughter of his former team-mate Ubaldo Novembre dies suddenly Ranieri calls to comfort him for ten days. “I was going through one of the darkest moments of my life and Claudio chose, as his holiday, to spend his time with me to do what he could to alleviate the pain,” Novembre recalls.
Almost as a Plan B Marcotti and Polverosi include a narrative which suggests that the miracle of Leicester City’s Premier League title was a culmination of Ranieri’s experiences as a father figure at Cagliari and Fiorentina, failure with Internazionale and Greece and luckless bridesmaid at Valencia, Chelsea, Roma and Juventus.
There are tales of team-bonding practical jokes and a “dilly ding, dilly dong” bell used to grab players’ attention during training. The signing of Stefan Schwarz at Fiorentina draws an analogy with N’Golo Kanté’s impact at the King Power Stadium while former Serie A and Uruguay striker Daniel Fonseca sums up his success under Ranieri with: “You could say I was the Jamie Vardy of Cagliari.”
Ranieri’s mastery at building title-challenging teams on a budget, especially at Roma, is well documented here – as is Leicester’s success match-by-match – but it’s his treatment at Chelsea that provides the strongest evidence for him being the most deserving of Premier League winners to date. Dropping club hero Dennis Wise, struggling to learn English – provoking Chelsea fans to chant “You don’t know what you’re saying” – and being a trail-blazing “Tinkerman” doesn’t detract from the fact that by blooding John Terry and signing Frank Lampard, William Gallas, Claude Makélélé, Arjen Robben and Petr Cech he created a side that would win the title and give Mourinho his “special” status. Perhaps there is something bad to say about Claudio after all.
July 4, 2018
I have read and listened to Marcotti before, and at his best he is prepared to challenge the received wisdom with well-argued points, having his own opinion rather than taking the easy option and following the crowd, and dismantling some of the media narratives surrounding football. At his worst he defends his personal favourites to the hilt, defending the indefensible because he's afraid of appearing wrong and being more one-eyed than a Liverpool fan on a phone-in. Unfortunately, the latter Marcotti wrote this, despite not being close enough to get an interview with the man himself.
As a chronicle of Ranieri's career, it was moderately interesting and quite informative, giving brief details of his jobs before Leicester and fleshing out personal stories rather than just listing results. However in nearly every case, Ranieri is portrayed as doing an excellent job regardless of the outcome. Napoli had to regress after Maradona's departure. The politics at Atletico was unworkable. Valencia had to regress after Benitez's departure. He improved Chelsea and set it up for Mourinho. He couldn't do any better with Roma. In isolation, these are valid conclusions but ignore the fact that other clubs have their own internal difficulties and that taken together, this was a manager who managed underperforming teams with resources far greater than most of their competitors (especially in the cases of Cagliari, Fiorentina, Juventus, Chelsea and Monaco) and did moderately well with them, but never winning a major title (until the freak Leicester season).
The discussion of Leicester is more detailed and also more balanced, perhaps because it's easier for Marcotti to show his contrarian side more when discussing the Premier League. The pizza reward for a clean sheet is treated as the fortuitous move it was rather than a psychological masterstroke and the "5000-1!!!!" story is put in context. However for someone who follows the Premier League closely, I didn't feel there was much new content or commentary here, though Marcotti did reveal his contradictions in his bid to prove Ranieri is the greatest. Blackburn's title so soon after promotion was dismissed because they'd spent lots of money, whereas it was really difficult to get Italian giants Fiorentina and Juventus up the table once they were promoted as Ranieri did. It was virtually impossible to beat Spalletti's Roma when at Juventus, but when Ranieri arrived two seasons later Spalletti's squad was awful (so we can only assume that Spalletti is the world's greatest manager to manage his team on this evidence).
I'd definitely like to know what neutrals think of Ranieri, rather than fanboys, but won't find out in this book in which interviews consist of ringing endorsements of Ranieri and the embarrassing defeat to the Faroe Islands is mentioned without real criticism. Marcotti is not a bad writer by any means but this was far from his finest effort.
As a chronicle of Ranieri's career, it was moderately interesting and quite informative, giving brief details of his jobs before Leicester and fleshing out personal stories rather than just listing results. However in nearly every case, Ranieri is portrayed as doing an excellent job regardless of the outcome. Napoli had to regress after Maradona's departure. The politics at Atletico was unworkable. Valencia had to regress after Benitez's departure. He improved Chelsea and set it up for Mourinho. He couldn't do any better with Roma. In isolation, these are valid conclusions but ignore the fact that other clubs have their own internal difficulties and that taken together, this was a manager who managed underperforming teams with resources far greater than most of their competitors (especially in the cases of Cagliari, Fiorentina, Juventus, Chelsea and Monaco) and did moderately well with them, but never winning a major title (until the freak Leicester season).
The discussion of Leicester is more detailed and also more balanced, perhaps because it's easier for Marcotti to show his contrarian side more when discussing the Premier League. The pizza reward for a clean sheet is treated as the fortuitous move it was rather than a psychological masterstroke and the "5000-1!!!!" story is put in context. However for someone who follows the Premier League closely, I didn't feel there was much new content or commentary here, though Marcotti did reveal his contradictions in his bid to prove Ranieri is the greatest. Blackburn's title so soon after promotion was dismissed because they'd spent lots of money, whereas it was really difficult to get Italian giants Fiorentina and Juventus up the table once they were promoted as Ranieri did. It was virtually impossible to beat Spalletti's Roma when at Juventus, but when Ranieri arrived two seasons later Spalletti's squad was awful (so we can only assume that Spalletti is the world's greatest manager to manage his team on this evidence).
I'd definitely like to know what neutrals think of Ranieri, rather than fanboys, but won't find out in this book in which interviews consist of ringing endorsements of Ranieri and the embarrassing defeat to the Faroe Islands is mentioned without real criticism. Marcotti is not a bad writer by any means but this was far from his finest effort.
December 11, 2017
A brilliant account of someone who has managed teams in 4 of the top 5 leagues in Europe. The way he has been portrayed in this book will make you think what could've been if this man was left to manage a bit longer. Nevertheless, a fantastic squad builder, motivator and tactician.
I never knew he was adored by the fans of whichever team he has managed. The last chapter in the book is the best thing one can read about Leicester's historic season. Fearless: The Amazing Underdog Story of Leicester City, the Greatest Miracle in Sports History is a suggestion for someone who wants to learn more about the know-how of one of the greatest sporting miracles to have ever happened.
I never knew he was adored by the fans of whichever team he has managed. The last chapter in the book is the best thing one can read about Leicester's historic season. Fearless: The Amazing Underdog Story of Leicester City, the Greatest Miracle in Sports History is a suggestion for someone who wants to learn more about the know-how of one of the greatest sporting miracles to have ever happened.
July 25, 2018
A good well written book that follows his playing career and Management career. It seems sad that he is not working at the moment although a certain Manchester club could do worse if Jose throws his toys out of the Old Trafford pram. The one thing that strikes you is how likeable he seems, and how he as no big ego unlike other managers ( ie Jose ! )
November 12, 2017
Ein kleines Wunder für sich: Die Biografie des aussergewöhnlichen Römer Fussballtrainers Claudio Ranieri erzählt, wie es zum Meistertitel von Leicester City kam. Top flight Sportjournalismus, sogar lesenswert, wenn man sich nicht gross für Fussball interessiert.
August 12, 2017
A nice insight into Claudio, I enjoyed the read as Gabriele Marcotti looked at his career from a distance.
May 6, 2020
A great insight into Claudio's incredible career, well written
December 26, 2018
I always enjoy listening to Gabriele Marcotti on the radio or reading his articles. He's lively, informed and interesting. The same can be said of this book, which is a skim through the life of Claudio Ranieri, leading up to his astonishing achievement of guiding Leicester City to the Premier League in 2015/16.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews