Ancelotti: “I saw Gattuso eat a live snail in Milanello”
Carlo Ancelotti witnessed the Valencia coach during his volatile, younger days. In his books, Carletto recounts his experiences with ‘Rino’. “He was a bulldozer…”
Their relationship didn’t end in the best way, but Carlo Ancelotti was always a firm supporter of his old team mate Genaro Gattuso - the player whom he entrusted to do all the heavy duty work for that Milan side, who were crowned European champions in 2003 and 2007. “Rino was a bulldozer,” Carletto wrote in one of his three books, Preferisco la Coppa. Between those pages, he reels off secrets from that Rossonero team and peppers his experiences with very graphic examples of what the footballers were like. As for Gattuso, whose Valencia side he will face later this evening, Ancelotti has many colourful memories. “To make it clear the kind of character Gattuso had, I will say that he once ate a live snail at the training ground, Milanello”.
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That Gattuso was essential within the Albero di Natale (the Christmas Tree), the 4-3-2-1 system that the Italian designed to make Milan such a powerful team. He played 323 games under Ancelotti, the second most used footballer behind only Pirlo (327). Together, they won a total of 11 titles.
“It was always the same. Kaka called him a ‘southern redneck’ and Rino chased him to give him a smack. He gave him thousands...”
One of Gattuso’s most visible virtues and the most appreciated within the Milan dressing room was his exacerbated competitiveness. Kaká could vouch for that almost as soon as he landed in Italy. In his first training session, “Kaká was still groggy and suffering jet lag after a long trip, and his first encounter was with Gattuso, who treated him to a forceful shoulder barge. Kaká was rocked by it, but not enough for to lose the ball. Rino looked at him with admirable calm and regaled us with an in-depth observation of that encounter. “Oh, f**k you!”. In his own way, he had put the seal of approval on his new team mate.” From that moment on, they became inseparable. “Ricky called Gattusso a southern redneck and Gattuso would chase him until he slapped him. I think he must have taken about a thousand slaps...”
The current relationship between Ancelotti and Gattuso is a mystery. The Madrid coach spoke this Tuesday in Riyadh of “personal problems” between the two, while his former pupil recently insinuated to AS that the friendship went awry at the end of 2019, when Carletto was fired from the Napoli post... and his position was given to Gattuso. Now there is frostiness between the coach whom he repeatedly called “Dad” and whom, when Ringhio went into coaching, the man he modelled himself on.