Claudio Ranieri was honoured as Italian football’s coach of the season yesterday for his extraordinary achievement in guiding unsung Leicester City to the most unlikely of Premier League triumphs.
Two days after lifting the English football’s biggest prize, the 64-year-old was back in his home city of Rome to collect the Enzo Bearzot award, named in honour of Italy’s late 1982 World Cup-winning coach and given annually to the country’s best manager.
He also received the Palma d’Oro (Golden Palm), the top honour that the Italian Olympic Committee can bestow on any coach. At the Committee’s headquarters in Rome, Ranieri seemed overwhelmed by his reception as he had a special message for the young sportsmen and women who had been invited to the awards ceremony.  “First, never give up; secondly, always keep going forward; thirdly, don’t think of sport as something that will earn you money but think about sport as something that will keep you united,” he told them.
Six coaches have won the Bearzot award since its introduction in 2011, but Ranieri is only the second to be recognised for an achievement outside the Italian game. Carlo Ancelotti won in 2014 after leading Real Madrid to their 10th European Cup win. It may not be the end of the awards that seem bound to be heaped upon the popular, modest Ranieri, with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi saying last week that he would propose awarding him a top honour from the State.
 
Vardy launches ‘V9 Academy’
Leicester City’s star striker Jamie Vardy launched his own academy yesterday and pledged to give non-league footballers a chance to follow in his rags-to-riches footsteps.
Vardy, 29, was playing in England’s seventh tier and working part-time at a factory six years ago, but is now an England international whose 24 goals fired Leicester to glory in the Premier League.
He was released by Sheffield Wednesday as a teenager and hopes that his new venture, christened the V9 Academy, will give a helping hand to players who do not have access to professional coaching structures. “I was told I was too small, that I was not ready for the physicality of scholarship,” Vardy said.
“I don’t think anyone can be told if they’re good enough at 15 or 16, when you still have so many years to grow and develop. That was my reason. Probably hundreds were told the same and had to drop down as well. Hopefully we can find them, get them to the academy and get them through. I have done it. That is there for people to see it can be done.
“With the players we get on and if they put the hard work in—and it will be hard, it will not be easy—we will give them Premier League-standard training and coaching. We can give them a chance to make the step up.” Applications for the academy, which will run free, week-long courses at Manchester City’s training centre during the close season, are being accepted from this month. The first intake of 42 players, aged between 17 and 33, will join up with the academy next year.