The Thai-owned team's manager Claudio Ranieri says it's time for him to increase players’ food incentives from pizza to lobster to defend EPL title next season
Bangkok: Leicester City's Italian manager Claudio Ranieri yesterday joked that it was time for him to boost the culinary incentives from pizza to lobster for his players to keep clean sheets.
Claudio Ranieri
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The genial Italian, 64, has said he rewarded each match without conceding a goal during the Foxes' stunning English Premier League title win with pizza for the whole team paid out off his own pocket. Speaking in Bangkok at the start of a two-day tour of the homeland of the club's billionaire owner, Ranieri said the implausible title victory meant he now has to up the ante.
Asked how he will reward a clean sheet next season as Leicester defend their title and take a bow in the European Champions League, Ranieri said "maybe a lunch or dinner, we have to increase or something. Lobster maybe". But "only one (for the team)", he added in his typically banterous style.
Welcoming the champs: Leicester City fans cheer as the English Premier League champion side’s players arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok yesterday. Pics/AFP
Ranieri's appointment last summer raised eyebrows among football pundits and fans alike. But he won over his many critics with each victory, all the while maintaining the irreverent tone that made him a popular figure during his first spell in England between 2000 and 2004.
He treated Leicester City's triumphant Premier League title-winners to a celebratory lunch at an Italian restaurant in Leicester the day after they won the title. It has been a whirlwind of celebrations since, but Ranieri said he had one eye on the coming season, when Leicester will line up in Europe's premier club competition as the unlikeliest English champions ever.
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