I am not in football for money: Leicester manager Ranieri

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri has asserted that he is involved in football for love of the game and claimed he doesn't even know how much his salary is.

Ranieri coached the reigning English Premier League champions to an unlikely title last season and has previously managed Chelsea, Juventus, Roma, Inter Milan, Valencia, Atletico Madrid among others but he is more keen on the enjoyment he derives from working.

"My motivation is not money," he said. "Believe me. The money can stop now. My motivation is my love of football, my love of players. To try to do the best ... I don't remember how much I earn every year.

"I don't go every day to train my players because I earn money. I go on the pitch because I am a lucky man ... and I am doing what I always wanted to do," Ranieri was quoted as saying by the Times on Friday.

"How many great champions earn a lot of money (enough to live in comfort for ever), but continue to fight, continue to win. It's not the money. It's the passion; it's the love. It's the ambition. That's it.

"I meet so many players with a lot of skill and they make good money for one or two years and then they go down. Down! Why? Because they are only about the money, to be famous. That is not where the strength of man comes from," he added.

When asked how he celebrated Leicester's unlikely title triumph last season, a feat achieved when Tottenham Hotspur drew 2-2 with Chelsea, the Italian said he went to bed rather than party.

"You don't believe me? I was at home, with my wife and two Italian assistants. When the match finished, my assistants went home and me and my wife sat there watching the television" he said.

"We stayed out of the celebrations of the players, of the city, we were not involved at all. We are the champions and we stayed home. And the next day our friends said to us: 'How did you celebrate?' And we said: 'We went to sleep and nothing more.'"

--IANS

dm/ajb/bg