Craig Shakespeare has passed away at the age of 60. In October last year a message of him battling a cancer illness came public and we all hoped he would fight it and get back to full fitness.
To get the sad message today about him passing away, was a bit of a shock and shows how life can turn on a coin from positives to negatives.
As a follower of English football for more than 50 years we learned to know Craig Shakespeare as a skilfull midfielder playing for Walsall, Sheffield W, West Brom and Grimsby. He played for The Saddlers in their best period in history, helping the club to the second tier of English football. From 1981 to 1989, he added up 284 league appearances, scoring 45 goals.
After his retirement from playing, he rejoined West Brom as a community officer and from there on build a career, seen as a clever coach and assistant manager mostly under the command of Nigel Pearson. He stayed loyal to Leicester when Pearson left in the summer of 2015. CS continued under Claudio Ranieri and they made it all come to life with a phenomenal season ending as Premier League champions.
In 2017 he took over as caretaker manager when Claudio Ranieri left. He guided Leicester to the quarter finals of the Champions League as well as getting to safety in Premier League. He later got the manager job on permanent basis. CS left Leicester in October that same year, after a difficult period with bad results.
He was also part of the England coaching staff during the short run of Sam Allardyce. He returned to work under Nigel Pearson at Watford. Later also in different coaching capacities under Dean Smith at Aston Villa and Norwich, before the interim return to Leicester, late in the 2022-23 season. This is so close and not long ago and to see him gone, is almost unreal as most of todays squad knew Craig Shakespeare well from that interim period, this of course did see messages coming through, Jamie Vardy leading the tributes.
In October 2023 we heard about his cancer illness for the first time. Sadly today news about him leaving us at the age of 60 came forward.
RIP, Craig Shakespeare
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