Born in Rome, Ranieri has spent a lot of his career on home soil, having spells at 14 different Italian teams throughout his playing and managerial career. The first of which was his hometown club, AS Roma.

Despite only making six appearances, the defender went onto have a relatively successful career on the field, eight years of which was spent at Catanzaro during the most successful period in the club’s history.

They achieved two promotions to the Serie A during Ranieri’s playing days and finished in a record 7th in Ranieri’s final season.

In a recent interview with Gazzetta di Calabria, the Italian compared his time at Catanzaro to the Leicester City. team he won the Premier League title with, describing them as a “group of friends who lived together”.

As a result of his service for the Southern Eagles and his miraculous achievements at Leicester, Ranieri received honorary citizenship from the former mayor of the Calabrian capital.

Since then, the Tinkerman has been injecting his enthusiasm and positive energy here, there and everywhere.

He won promotions to the top flight with both Catania and Palermo before retiring from football in 1986.

Following his retirement, he became a coach at amateur side Vigor Lamezia before taking charge at Campania Puteolana.

After a year in Pozzuoli, he made the move to Cagliari, a third division side at the time, but a Serie A time just two seasons on after successive promotions under Ranieri’s reign, this was his breakthrough.

And he’s never looked back since in quite a remarkable managerial métier, bringing rise to the likes of Gianfranco Zola, Gabriel Batistuta, Frank Lampard and Rui Costa for clubs including Napoli, Juventus and Chelsea to name a few.

Not to mention *that* Premier League season. What a man and what a joy it is to have him back on English soil.