Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri was named as the FIFA Coach of the Year in Zurich last night during the award ceremony.
The 65 year old Italian beat competitors Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid) and Fernando Santos (Portugal) to win the prestigious award after last season’s fairytale title triumph with the Foxes.
He led the team to unpredictable glory last term who had narrowly avoided relegation in the earlier campaign.
Though the champions are struggling this campaign as they lie 15th in the league table as of now after 20 games played. Leicester City have reached the last 16 of their maiden UEFA Champions league campaign.
“Fantastic evening for me to be here, and to win this award I’m very crazy now. Thank you so much for voting me.”
“I thank my family, my wife, my agent, my chairman, my players, without the players it’s very difficult for me to win anything and I thank the fans.”
“The god of football said Leicester must win, and they did. they did. Before Dani Alves said at 30 he can do some more. I am 65 and I start now, thank you so much to everybody.”
Chris Coleman (Wales), Didier Deschamps (France), Luis Enrique (Barcelona), Pep Guardiola (Bayern Munich), Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool), Mauricio Pochettino (Tottenham) and Diego Simeone (Athletico Madrid) were the other managers who made the shortlist.
