By Adebayo Williams
Claudio Ranieri has extended his Leicester City contract until 2020. The 64-year-old Italian, who guided the Foxes to their first ever Premier League title last season, joined the club at the beginning of last season after former boss Nigel Pearson was sacked.
“Leicester City Football Club is delighted to announce that its first-team manager, Claudio Ranieri, has signed a new contract with the Premier League champions,” the club statement said.
He began his managerial career in the lower leagues in Italy during the late 1980s, and made his name at Cagliari, whom he took from Serie C1 up to Serie A in successive seasons. He later went on to manage Napoli, where he led the team to qualify for theUEFA Cup, only to be sacked the following season. In 1993, he joined Fiorentina, and immediately led them to Serie A promotion, also winning the Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa Italiana in 1996, before moving to Spain in 1997, to manage Valencia and then Atlético Madrid. With Valencia, he won a Copa del Rey and an UEFA Intertoto Cup, and helped the club to qualify for the UEFA Champions League.
In 2000, Ranieri moved to England to become head coach at Chelsea. His four seasons there saw Chelsea improve their points total season on season, with them finishing runners-up in 2004 and reaching the UEFA Champions League semi-final the same season. He was sacked by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich that May, but a number of players he signed and brought through during his time at Stamford Bridge formed the core of the side that went on to achieve domestic and international success in subsequent seasons.
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