What’s the story?
FIFA’s inaugral BEST award ceremony was the toast of the town; and one of the most coveted awards on offer was the one for Mens’ Coach of the Year and Leicester City’s Claudio Ranieri walked away with the prestigious award in front of the multiple VIPs who had gathered together for the gala event.
In case you didn’t know...
The final shortlist for the award included three people – Real Madrid’s Zinedine Zidane, Leicester City’s Claudio Ranieri and Portugal’s Fernando Santos. They were gleaned from other contenders that included Wales’ Chris Coleman, France’s Didier Deschamps, Barcelona’s Luis Enrique, Manchester City and Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola, Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp, Tottenham Hotspur’s Mauricio Pochettino and Atletico Madrid’s Diego Simeone!
Now that’s a tough list to top!
The voting was decided by a combination of 25% national team captains, 25% national team managers, 25% selected media experts and 25% fans votes. This truly democratic voting process is where the FIFA BEST Awards mark them apart from the Ballon d’Or awards that France Football announce every year.
Read, Also – FIFA Best Player 2016 Awards live updates
The heart of the matter
Real Madrid’s Zidane deserves more than just a doff of the hat for his amazing record of winning more trophies than losing games in the calendar year 2016 and Fernando Santos’ triumph with Portugal was testament to the amazing footballing brains of the Portuguese, but Claudio Ranieri deserves the award for doing something that no one else.
Want to know what happened, and why this was so richly deserved?
Read, Also – Leicester City’s glorious summer: Celebrating the greatest sporting tale of the decade
What next?
Claudio Ranieri was the author of a fairytale the likes of which the footballing world has never seen before, and it’s highly unlikely that it will ever be repeated by anyone else in the history of our great sport
Sportskeeda’s Take
A richly deserved title for a manager who showed that even the tiny can take on the mighty and win, and that David CAN beat Goliath. And for that Mr. Ranieri – many congratulations. Couldn’t have been more well deserved
