ROME: Claudio Ranieri has been summoned out of retirement to take up the job no-one wanted as new coach of Roma.

Ivan Juric, their second coach of the season, was sacked on Sunday after which specuation surged around Roberto Mancini, Massimiliano Allegri, Erik ten Hag, Graham Potter, Frank Lampard, Rudi Garcia and Vincenzo Montella.

Finally, the American owners had to turn to Claudio Ranieri. The 73-year-old, born in Rome, had announced his retirement last May after securing the survival of Cagliari in the last round of Serie A matches.

Now a call from Roma has convinced him to return to the bench as their fourth coach since the start of 2024 after José Mourinho, Daniele De Rossi and Juric.

Ranieri travelled yesterday with his agent to London, where the American owners of Roma, president Dan Friedkin and vice-president, his brother Ryan, had been meeting at the headquarters of the Friedkin Group since Monday to resolve the crisis.

The agreement provides for him to manage the team until the end of the season and then the veteran coach will join the board.

Ranieri will lead the first training session tomorrow and will begin his third stint in charge of Roma after his two previous spells, from 2009 to 2011 and from March to May 2019.

Ranieri has managed a long list of teams including Valencia twice (1997-1999 and 2004-2005) and Atlético Madrid (1999-2000), as well as Cagliari, Napoli, Fiorentina, Chelsea, Parma, Juventus, Inter, Monaco, Greece, Nantes, Fulham, Sampdoria and Watford.

His greatest success came in 2016, when he led modest outsiders Leicester to the Premier League title.

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