Gattuso The Mad Dog Who Was Built of Rage and Loyalty

Italy is a land of footballing artists. Pierlo, Baggio, Del Piero. Men who paint the game with beauty, but Gennaro Gattuso? He was no artist. He was the war drum. They called him Il Ringhio, the snarl. A man who treated every match like a battlefield, where the ball was the prize, and blood was just part of the bargain. Many said he was nothing more than a really angry man. With no footballing talent, they couldn't have been more wrong. He was simply misunderstood. Because behind the tackles and the fury was a man with a gentle heart, who played for something deeper. For his teammates. For the shirt. For the people who stood in the rain and sang his name. This is the story of Gennaro Gattuso. The mad dog built of rage and loyalty. The kind of man football will never see again. You see, Gattuso was born far from the bright lights of San Siro, in the small fishing town of Corigliano Calabro. Life there was simple, but it was never easy. Rino learned early that nothing would be handed to him. Every scrap, every opportunity would have to be fought for. He started playing football at the age of 12. He joined Perugia, a football club in Umbria, Italy, and he started to develop there. He rose through the ranks and broke into the senior team at 17 years old. But at the age of 19, this precocious little teenager just packed up his bags and left the country. He was still very young with little to no real first team experience, but he already had a very strong mentality that many had never seen before. With the encouragement of his father, Rino, as he was fondly called, moved all the way to Scotland, where he knew no one and could not even speak the language. There was some controversy surrounding his move from Perugia to Rangers. The Italian club said that the Scottish giants had gone through illegal means to sign the kid, and they even took the case up to FIFA. But Gattuso didn't care about all that. He blocked out all that noise and was just focused on his new life. His goal was to succeed in this new club and new country, and he was not going to let anything stop him. Anything at all. He made his Rangers debut on the opening day of the season under coach Walter Smith, and then went on to score his first goal for the club not long after in the opening round of the new UEFA Cup season against French side Strasbourg. But the real defining moment of his first few months in Scotland was when he received his first red card as a professional footballer. It sort of felt like when that radioactive spider first bit Peter Parker, that first taste of blood turned Gattuso into a completely different animal. It was a game between Rangers and Hearts back in December 1997. Gattuso was shown a second yellow card for a rash challenge on a Hearts defender named Poynton. You know why I'm telling you his name? It is because that was not just a random tackle. It was revenge. A few minutes earlier, Poynton had tackled Gattuso in a way that could have led to an injury. Thankfully, Rino came out of it unhurt, but the problem was that the Hearts defender went unpunished. That tackle was deserving of a red card, but Poynton remained on the pitch. Seeing as the referee didn't serve justice, Gattuso decided to take the law into his own hands. He held that grudge in his heart and bided his time, and when he saw an opportunity, like a predator, he struck. Yes, he was sent off, but as far as he was concerned, justice was served. That right there was Rino Gattuso in a nutshell. In 1998, Walter Smith left Rangers, and the coach who replaced him didn't really like Gattuso, so he either didn't play him at all or played him as a right back. That was Gattuso's cue. He surely was not going to let himself be disrespected like that. It was time to return home. Juventus wanted him, and they tried to sign him, but he turned them down, instead preferring a move to Salernitana, who had just gained promotion back to the Serie A. He believed that would be a better path for his development. He wasn't wrong. After just one season at Salernitana, AC Milan came and bought him in 1999. He made his debut for the Rossoneri in a Champions League game against Chelsea. Yeah, he was brought in for the biggest challenges. He was just 21, but he was already ready to step up. His first big test came in October of 1999, during the Milan derby. Gattuso was up against a terrifying attack spearheaded by Ronaldo, the best player in the world at the time, but he wasn't moved. This was a young player, in his first season at a club as big as AC Milan, so everyone expected him to be scared. Instead, it was he who ended up putting fear in the minds of Ronaldo and his teammates. The mentality Gattuso showed in that derby made the Milan fans fall in love with him instantly. Now they knew he was truly theirs. They had Shevchenko, George Weah, Ayala and Ambrosini, but this kid, he was something different. Something really special. They loved him, but they still hadn't seen his full potential yet. It was Carlo Ancelotti who found the formula in 2001. In the summer of that year, Milan snatched a certain dude named Andrea Pirlo from the books of their city rivals. Then, in November, former player Carlo Ancelotti returned to the club in the capacity of head coach. Don Carlo quickly identified Gattuso's work rate, ball-winning ability, versatility, and tremendous passion for the club and the game as his best qualities, and figured that the way to get the best from a player like that was to pair him with a technical and creative playmaker, you know, like Andrea Pirlo. That midfield duo right there was cash money. You think N'Golo Kante and Paul Pogba were a great duo for France? This was even better. Rui Costa also joined in 2001, and then Clarence Seedorf joined in 2002, completing an insane four-man midfield. Ancelotti would often set his team up in a 4-4-2 formation, with Pirlo as the deep-lying playmaker flanked by Gattuso on the right and Seedorf on the left, and Rui Costa in front of them playing as the attacking midfielder. When Kaká joined in 2003, he slowly began to replace Costa in the biggest games. With this midfield, Milan went on to dominate Italy and Europe. They won the Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, and Coppa Italia in 2003. Then, in 2004, they won the domestic double of the Scudetto and Supercoppa Italiana. After Milan's Champions League success in 2003, more people started to find out about the fearless little man named Gattuso. While everyone feared a certain giant striker from Sweden with a larger-than-life personality, Gattuso simply didn't give a hoot who Zlatan Ibrahimović was or who he thought he was. When they faced off in the Champions League in September 2003, Gattuso infamously slapped Zlatan in the face for marking him a little too hard. Really, with a personality like this on your team, how could you not succeed? Gattuso and Milan would reach their second Champions League final in three years in 2005, and everyone thought they were going to win that one again after they took a three-goal first-half lead. But somehow, through some miracle, even those who witnessed it still can't properly describe till date, they lost that game on penalties. But Gattuso has always been a man who knew had to hold a grudge and seek revenge. And now a leader in the AC Milan squad, he made sure to infect the entire dressing room with that mentality. As a team, they earnestly sought revenge for that embarrassing loss on the biggest footballing stage. And they got it. But just before they did, Gattuso had a different mission. You see, at this time, Rino was already an established Italy international. He had gone to the 2000 Summer Olympics, as well as the 2002 World Cup, where he only made two substitute appearances, and saw his side get knocked out by host South Korea in one of the most controversial games the competition has ever seen. He also made two appearances in the 2004 Euros, where he saw Italy get eliminated in the first round. This dude right here had built his career brick by brick, and brought himself to a point where he was now regarded as one of the best on the planet in his position. He had won everything there was to win at club level. But all that meant nothing to Gattuso if he was unable to also do it for his country. He cherished every opportunity to represent his nation, and it was his dream to make them the most successful European national team in world football. And for that dream, Gattuso would make the biggest sacrifice. Trust me, you won't believe what that sacrifice was, but you'll find out soon. You see, going into the 2006 World Cup, Italy were nowhere near favourites. Their failure at the last two tournaments, as well as the dominance of teams like Brazil, Germany, France, and Portugal, made sure that no one even gave Italy a glance. But they had two things going for them. Incredible passion, and an unbreakable chemistry. At that time, Gattuso and Pirlo had been playing together for five years at both club and international level, so they understood each other so well. The set-up in Italy was very similar to the one at Milan, a 4-4-2 formation, except that this time, Pirlo and Gattuso were left at the base with Perotta and Camoranesi on the flanks. Pirlo would create orchestrate, and Gattuso will do the dirty work and clean up. With this set-up, Italy breezed past their group and went ahead to face Australia in the round of 16. Everyone thought that would be an easy game for Italy, but it was far from it. The Europeans had to dig in. And yeah, that was exactly where Gattuso thrived. He won eight duels, the second most of any player on the pitch that day. He also made two interceptions and two clearances. His job was made a little more difficult when Materazzi was sent off in the 50th minute, but he just started to work twice as hard and began to cover a lot more space. In total, he made five tackles that day, more than any other player who was on the pitch. Yes, including defenders. He kept Italy in it long enough to break the Australians. They had been strong for most of the game, but they finally slipped, conceding a penalty in the 95th minute. Totti converted and sent Italy to the last eight. In the quarter-final against Ukraine, Gattuso was even better. Italy won 3-0. Gattuso was not on the score sheet, neither did he provide any assist. He didn't even play the full 90 minutes, but he was named the official man of the match. Yeah, that's how good he was. He was really doing everything in his power to lead Italy to glory. They would go on to face hosts and 2002 World Cup finalist Germany in the semis. Once again, Italy had to dig in against a very tough opponent. And Gattuso was up to the task yet again. He made the most tackles, most interceptions, and won the second most duels of any player on the pitch that day. Just like against Australia, he and the resilient defence were able to keep Italy in it long enough for the Germans' resolve to be broken with goals in the 119th and 120th minutes. And just like that, Italy were in the And they were hoping to win the trophy for the first time in 24. There was a lot at stake, and no one understood that as well as Gattuso did. He knew he had a big role to play if Italy were going to win the World Cup against clear favourites France, and he played that role to perfection. It was on this day that his big, big sacrifice came. But before then, he was completely locked in. He made a total of 15 tackles in that final. Seven more than the next best person, Fabio Cannavaro. He also won 17 duels. Again, seven more than the next best person. Gattuso was beating defenders to their own game while also performing his midfield duties. He completed five long balls, created a chance, and had a 78% pass completion rate. This man was everywhere doing everything all at once. France were only able to score from a penalty, and after Italy equalised, Gattuso and his fellow Italian gladiators held things down all the way till the end. So the game was to be decided on penalties. Gattuso would definitely have loved to step up and take a kick for Italy in the shootout, to bring them one step closer to glory. But because Zidane had been sent off for headbutting Materazzi in the 110th minute, someone had to be dropped from the Italy team. You see, according to the laws of the game, if a team gets a red card and the game goes into penalty shootouts, the other team would have to drop a player so that the number of kickers on both sides can be equal, and whoever is dropped from the other team can't even be with the rest of the players on the halfway line. This was one of the biggest moments in Italy's football history, and Gattuso definitely wanted to be stepping up for his country for which he had bled all his life, or at the very least, be with his teammates on the halfway line to motivate and encourage them. But he understood that being a leader also meant making huge sacrifices, so he made the difficult decision to sacrifice himself. They called him an angry man, a violent man, all of that stuff, but this was who Gennaro Gattuso really was. He was just a man with a lot of passion for the game who would give anything to see his team succeed. Italy would go on to win the shootout and win the World Cup, and Gattuso was the happiest man on the pitch, and he showed it by taking his shorts off and running around in his underwear. That's just the kind of guy he is, pure, raw, and full of unadulterated passion and grit. Gattuso was one of the best players at the 2006 World Cup, and was named in the All-Star team after winning more tackles than any other player in the entire tournament, but despite the recognition, he was still sort of underrated. He would go on to win his second Champions League trophy with AC Milan in 2007, getting revenge on Liverpool after the final loss in 2005. Once again, he was the player with the most tackles and most duels won on the pitch. He simply never failed to show up whenever his team needed him. He would also go on to win the FIFA Club World Cup in 2007. As far as team trophies are concerned, Gattuso more or less completed football. He won a league title, the Champions League, domestic cups, and the World Cup. He had a truly incredible career and a more than impressive CV. Gattuso left AC Milan in 2012 after 13 years at the club, and he currently sits in the club's Hall of Fame. But more importantly, he lives in the hearts of many Italians and football fans all over the world, as a true legend of the sport, one of the most passionate the game has ever produced. He has since gone into coaching, and now, he leads the Italy national team as head coach and will be hoping to restore the glory days by leading the European giants to the World Cup for the first time in 12 years. Rino Gattuso was definitely misunderstood, but there is another Italian football legend who was perhaps even more misunderstood. His name is Roberto Baggio, and if you want to know the story of how this man died standing on the biggest stage of all, click on this video and I'll tell you all about it.