The Italian technician will be on the OM bench from Saturday during the trip to Monaco in Ligue 1.
OM have their new coach! Free from any contract since his departure from Valencia last January, and once expected to join OL, Gennaro Gattuso will succeed Marcelino on the bench of Olympique de Marseille, according to information from Radio France. The former star of AC Milan and Squadra Azzurra, coach for ten years, will commit until the end of the season (and another option) with the Marseille club, in the midst of an internal crisis.
Franceinfo: sport reveals three things to know about the Italian technician.
A mixed coaching assessment
If his track record as a player is well documented, with two Champions Leagues and a World Cup among others, his experience as a coach is more mixed. The former midfielder has played for eight different clubs in ten years. He has never stayed more than two years on the bench of the same team since his debut in 2013. Having played for Naples, AC Milan and more recently Valencia, the 45-year-old has a record of 111 victories, 71 draws and 74 defeats in 256 matches.
In Serie A, the former number 6 has had some success. He stayed two seasons in Milan (November 2017 to May 2019), before going to Naples a few months later (December 2019 to May 2021). He notably won the Italian Cup in 2020 with the Partenopei against Juventus Turin (0-0, 3-2 tab). His experience at Valencia is more complicated, with a departure from the Spanish club on January 30, 2023, just seven months after his arrival in June 2022. The Iberian team was 14th, just one point ahead of the relegation zone.
An explosive character…
Like several coaches who have sat on the OM bench, Gennaro Gattuso has a fiery character. Proof of this is that its nickname in Italy is “Ringhio”, meaning “growl” in French. During his induction as AC Milan coach in 2017, Gattuso adopted a speech in his warrior image. “We must prove that we are willing to suffer, that we are a united team (…) We’re going to have to behave like we’re on a battlefield.” he warned.
Known in particular for his aggressiveness and his determination to recover the ball when he was a player, Gattuso sometimes got out of his depth. He headbutted the Tottenham assistant coach in 2011 in the Champions League, which earned him a five-match suspension.
…and controversial statements
Already, when he was still a player, Gennaro Gattuso often made people talk about him in his media outings. He notably mentioned homosexual marriage when expressing his opposition at a press conference, two days before the quarter-final of Euro 2008 against Spain. “I don’t agree with gay weddings. For me, it’s between a man and a woman. Yes, it scandalizes me, because I believe in family. But hey, we’re in 2008, and Everyone does what he wants”, he declared. He also pointed out the place of women in football five years later.
“Women in football don’t suit me. I’m sorry, but that’s how it is.”, he also judged in 2013 during an interview given to Radio Radio [station italienne], when Barbara Berlusconi was installed within the management of AC Milan. Statements that emerged on social networks two years ago, when he was announced close to joining Tottenham. THE #NoToGattuso was established on Twitter and Facebook. Accused of homophobia and sexism, Gennarro Gattuso reacted to these comments during an interview for the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero. “The disappointment was great. They described me differently from what I am (…) And this happened at a time when no one wants to recognize the danger of the web”he defended himself.