EXCLUSIVE: Interview with man of the moment, Leicester City boss Claudio Ranieri

He knows he is the centre of attention. He's conscious that the world is looking at Leicester, and he takes it with infinite humility and simplicity. He's easy going and speaks passionately. Claudio Ranieri is keeping his feet on the ground, however difficult it seems, with his team on the border of eternity. "We're already making history," he says. 

To win the title would be the biggest surprise in the history of football, said Lineker a couple of months ago, believing in you. Do you see it like that?

In today's football, yes. Sure. But I think that this team is already making history. Day to day. 

It's a triumph of normality. A message? 

It's a demonstration that you can win in different ways. On top of everything you have to believe and fight for it. And this team, all of them, go to together in this. 

The whole Leicester squad cost less than a Manchester City signing. 

When I arrived and I saw the players I thought we could do something good. We have given voice to the little teams, to the clubs with less chances... and we have shown that it can be done. 

This calm, this tranquility you transmit, is it a pose?

I am happy. And I'm like this. I've never been different. In Naples, Madrid, Valencia, Turin, Milan and Monaco, I've lived in the same manner. You can be tense and suffer or take what comes with optimism.

Even your relationship with the journalists here, in England, is a blessing. 

Well, in Valencia and Madrid I also had very nice relationships. But it's true that I like to keep this proximity. I like the training sessions more than being in the press room, but I understand your work and, what better than keeping a good ambience?

There are photos of you with people in the city, at the market... 

Of course. I go with my wife to the market, I love it. And on the bus. And I go into the centrer, by the lake there is beside the house. I don't do anything that I didn't do before. What happens is that now, this seems like an exception, and for me it's the most normal thing. 

What do people say? Because you are a hero in Leicester.

You see the people are happy and proud of their team. They support you. The people and the club have made me feel part of them, I feel very fortunate.

From the dressing room it seems you are the perfect boss. 

Those who are making all this a reality are the players, and they know it. 

Here they are emulating, like you said, Forest Gump. 

Hahaha! Yes, well, I say many things. We know that we have to fight and run moe. And the players have assumed that. 

It's the antithesis of the great coaches. Two days of holiday, pizza, coca-cola, a surprising freedom. 

I've not changed anything! This same team first came up and then saved themselves in a way. The players are before everything else, people, they are happy, they are free and they have responsibility because they know what they have to do.

It's a freedom that for others is debauchery.

Look. here I have players who come every day from Manchester, and others from London... it's not an important topic, but it makes me proud to see them as if they've come from just 5 kilometres away. 

They received you with doubts...

I know, yes. It's okay to say that. The first thing that I told them was not to worry about tactics, that I was confident in them, that I had seen their great work last season and to keep on the same path was the objective. 

You also said the objective was to arrive at 40 points. 

Yes. Hahaha. And at Christmas we had 39. So I met with the team and I said, fantastic, how about we try and get one point more than that, 40, to get to 79 in total. And we are close. 

Do you see yourselves as champions?

No! It's true that if the leader with our advantage was Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal or Man City, nobody would question it, but I understand that we are a different thing. And we still have a lot to fight for. 

To be so close to success...

The success is that we can ask ourselves this. That everyone talks about Leicester. And they follow you in England, in Italy, in Spain, in America. It's a phenomenon that has reached the whole world.

Here everybody knows it. 

Each game is a battle, and then comes anothero ne. Nobody thinks about anything else and I see this in the eyes of the boys. There's a lot of camerarderie and jokes, but at the start of training, the work is absolute. And there are no distractions.

What are you thinking about? 

Playing the next game and looking at the league table. 

"We can be a new Chelsea." Does it worry you that some fans are saying that?

This year is exceptional and we should know that. We are here because the favourites have slipped up a lot and this will not happen next season. Our reality should be to finish in the top 10. 

Do you fear your stars leaving? 

No. Because when I arrived the objective was to construct a project. This was the initial work and if there are transfers, because they can't be avoided, we will see the way we rebuild ourselves. 

After so many years coaching, this vitality that sticks to you, can you explain that as being because you're so close to your first league title?

No. Because it would mean thinking I did nothing before. I am happy, proud of my sporting career. I am a very lucky person, much further than however this season ends.