MADRID Claudio Ranieri will take over as coach of Atletico Madrid next season, the Spanish first division club confirmed on Monday. Ranieri, who guided Valencia to their 3-0 Spanish cup final win over Atletico on Saturday, met club president Jesus Gil after the match to agree the switch. The Italian will thus become the 23rd different coach including caretakers appointed by Gil in his 12 years in charge.

"He's definitely our coach for the new season but that's all we can say at the moment," a spokeswoman for Atletico said on Monday. "Contract details still have to be confirmed." Ranieri's appointment will mean an early exit for Radomir Antic who returned to the club in March as successor to Arrigo Sacchi. Antic, who in 1996 won a league and cup double in the first season of his earlier three-year spell at Atletico, had signed a 15-month contract on his return.

That is likely to cost Atletico around 175 million pesetas ($1.10 million) in compensation. Ranieri, a former coach of Cagliari, Napoli and Fiorentina, moved to Valencia at the start of the 1997-98 season on a two-year contract. He struggled early on, guiding the side to a mediocre ninth place in the table in his first season. But their improvement this year has been remarkable.

They twice beat Barcelona, destroyed Real Madrid 6-0 in the first leg of their cup semifinal and beat Mallorca 3-0 in the final match of the season to clinch a Champions League place for next season. Their success this season has been based on the solidity of goalkeeper Santiago Canizares, the Spanish number one who came from Real Madrid over the summer.

And Ranieri's hopes of succeeding at Atletico will be helped by the arrival of another top class keeper, Toni Jimenez. Atletico confirmed on Monday they had completed the signing of the 28-year-old goalkeeper reserve to Canizares in the Spanish national team from Espanyol. Toni, who has been club captain at Espanyol for the last two seasons, will be presented as an Atletico player on Wednesday. (Reuter)