Another phenomenon. Olympique de Marseille is used to recruiting special men on its bench. Football madmen incapable of wallowing in the language and getting into the frame. After Bielsa, Sampoali or Tudor, to name a few, it’s time for Gennaro Gattuso. The former Squadra Azzura and AC Milan legend will officially join Canebière this Wednesday.
On paper, the atypical profile of Gattuso, 45, has something to please the Marseille public, always hungry for whole personalities capable of absorbing pressure. What words will “Ringhio” (his nickname, which means “growl” in Italian) choose to get the supporters behind him? His first speech, scheduled for this Thursday, promises to be very well attended, given the Olympian context and the open crisis between the management and its Ultras.
Since his debut in 2013, the former defensive midfielder has had eight different clubs, including four with which he did not last more than half a season (Sion, Palermo, OFI Crete, Fiorentina). The sign of a fiery coach, not anxious about the idea of getting into confrontation with his hierarchy, particularly regarding transfers. Same thing with his players, whom he can brood over, shower with compliments but also dedicate to bemoaning. In Naples, this locker room boss had, for example, chosen to dust off the competition for the left-back position, even if it meant leaving two of the three candidates in the stands on the day of the match. “They were not on the bench because yesterday they walked in training,” will justify the Calabrian with an inflexible temperament… but sometimes also crude, even virilistic.
“I want my players to play with their balls and their hearts! »
It’s not uncommon to hear him talk about genitals when he wants to analyze a match or discredit someone. “The problem is he’s a dick in football. He doesn’t know anything about it. In addition, he is hypocritical and mean,” he said ten years ago in So Foot about his former president in Palermo, with whom the collaboration lasted only eight matches in the summer of 2013.
???? Mouctar Diakhaby receives a red card while he is on the substitutes’ bench…
???? Gennaro Gattuso then becomes mad with rage! pic.twitter.com/8ersKbX0jV— beIN SPORTS (@beinsports_FR) October 8, 2022
“I want my players to play with their balls and their hearts! », he had also said a year earlier on the Pisa bench, before sending a journalist to “fuck off”. Be careful, Jorge Mendes’ protégé spares no one. Not even fellow interviewers. One of his most famous outbursts dates from a post-match in April 2018. When asked by a Milanese journalist if his player Hakan Calhanoglu’s strike on the crossbar could have changed the scenario of the match, he replied this: “If my grandfather had three balls, it would be a pinball machine. »
Accusations of sexism and homophobia that do not leave him
General hilarity in the audience. However, the Gattuso show is not always unanimous either, far from it. Certain speeches dating in particular from his time as a player still degrade his CV today. During Euro 2008, he said he was “scandalized” by the legalization of same-sex marriage in Spain. “For me, it’s between a man and a woman,” he said. Yes, this scandalizes me, because I believe in family. But hey, it’s 2008, and everyone does what they want. “.
He did it again five years later, this time denigrating women’s football. “Women in football don’t suit me. I’m sorry but that’s how it is.” He then reacted to the appointment of Barbara Berlusconi, daughter of the former president of the Italian council and owner of AC Milan, within the Lombard organization.
Gennaro Gattuso played almost two seasons on the bench of AC Milan (2017-2019), his favorite club.
These slip-ups cost him work opportunities. In 2021, the Tottenham board is asking for it. The Transalpine shows interest but finds itself blocked by London supporters gathered on social networks under the banner #NoToGattuso. Same wave of protest from FC Valence, even if this time the position had returned to him.
“My story speaks for me”
Gattuso has repeatedly said he is “hurt” by these accusations of homophobia and sexism. “My regret is that I did not have the opportunity to defend myself, to explain that what people in England were saying does not correspond to me,” he initially reacted before giving another layer to the time of negotiations with Valencia in La Gazzetta dello Sport. “My story speaks for me. Am I racist? Homophobic? Xenophobic? Machist? But are we crazy? It’s time to calm down,” will then defend the man who did not hesitate to exile himself to Glasgow Rangers at 19 (1997-1998) before winning at home, in Serie A. About his sentence on women, he will argue that he simply wanted to “defend the work of Adriano Galliani, who had been sidelined”.
This Thursday, it will mainly be a question of sportsmanship, while OM must recover from the punishment received at the Parc des Princes (4-0) and achieve a result at AS Monaco on Saturday evening. But he knows, his past speeches and his offensive communication style are also likely to be of interest. This is also the life of a “Ringhio” Star.
