Desperate Italy Bucking the Trend of Picking More Established Coaches With Hiring of Gattuso
It used to be that the coach of Italy's soccer team was someone who had a long list of managerial achievements and was nearer to the end of a career than the start. Not so with Gennaro Gattuso.
But these are desperate times for Italy, the four-time champion that is facing a real possibility of failing to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup. Luciano Spalletti was fired after Italy lost its opening qualifier 3–0 to Norway, and when Claudio Ranieri rejected the job, the Italian federation turned to Gattuso – a member of the last Azzurri squad to win the World Cup in 2006.
The hope is that the 47-year-old Gattuso can transmit the same level of combativeness and determination that he used to display as a gritty midfielder to a group of players who have shown more willingness to sweat it out for the clubs paying their contracts than the national team. Never mind that Gattuso has won only one trophy in his 12-year coaching career: an Italian Cup with Napoli five years ago. Because wherever he's gone, he has had a no-nonsense and no-filter approach at a series of clubs in crisis.
So it's hard to imagine Gattuso dealing with Francesco Acerbi's refusal of an Italy call-up for the Norway game in the same manner that Spalletti did – by mostly brushing it off.
When Gattuso didn't like the way he was being portrayed in the Greek media as coach of financially struggling club Crete in 2014, he lashed out in a verbal tirade during a memorable news conference. 'I didn't come here for (a) holiday,' he said then. 'One year here is 10 years in another club. And this is good for me.' Gattuso then resigned at Crete before he was convinced to change his mind and return a day later.
At his next job with Pisa, he and Foggia counterpart Roberto De Zerbi nearly came to blows in a heated argument during a playoff win to earn promotion to Serie B after Gattuso was hit on the head by a bottle thrown from the stands.
And just last season at Croatian club Hajduk Split, Gattuso removed star player Ivan Perisic from the team for disciplinary reasons.
As a player, too, Gattuso never shied away from standing up to the biggest names. During the match in which he scored his only international goal – against England in 2000 – a 22-year-old Gattuso criticized David Beckham for alleged diving, telling the famous midfielder directly to his face, 'This is not a swimming pool.'
While financial details were not announced, Gattuso was reportedly given only a one-year contract with Italy worth 800,000 euros (slightly under 1 million). But the deal includes a 1 million euro (1.16 million) bonus if Italy qualifies for the World Cup, Italian media reported.
Gattuso won't be on his own. Former Italy goalkeeper and captain Gianluigi Buffon remains the squad's team manager. Leonardo Bonucci, the former defender who was captain of the squad that Gattuso coached at AC Milan, will be an assistant coach. Andrea Barzagli, another member of the 2006 team, appears set to be named coach of Italy's under-20 or under-21 squad. And Cesare Prandelli, who coached Italy to the final of the 2012 European Championship, is being tipped to take charge of the federation's development of young talents.
Gattuso's debut will come against Estonia in September.
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