Spanish top-flight club Valencia said Thursday that former AC Milan and Italy midfielder Gennaro Gattuso will be their coach next season.
The 44-year-old, who, among other things, helped Italy win the 2006 World Cup, comes in after José Bordalas following a ninth-placed finish last term.
After hanging up his boots in 2010, Gattuso embarked on a coaching career with Sion in Switzerland. After spells with Palermo, Greek side OFI and Pisa, Gattuso had two seasons on the Milan bench. He was in charge of Napoli from December 2019 until May 2021, winning the 2020 Italian Cup with the Naples team.
Last season after being connected to Tottenham, he signed on to become Fiorentina’s manager but left the club less than a month later. Gattuso has a history of making controversial comments and this has led to a strong resistance among Valencia fans who started the #NoToGattuso movement.
Among his more controversial comments: in 2008, he declared that “marriage is between a man and a woman” and that same-sex is “strange.” In 2013, he was criticized for saying, “I can’t see women in soccer” after AC Milan named Barbara Berlusconi as one of its CEOs.
He has rebutted such criticism by saying that he made the comments many years ago and that they were taken out of context. Upon his appointment as Manager of Valencia, he has declared, “I hope to do the job I love in peace and be judged for that alone. Accordingly for who I am really.”
