Rino Gattuso is the new CT of Italy

Brothers of Italy, Italy (desperate) called. The new national team coach is Rino Gattuso: the news has circulated everywhere, only the formalization is missing. He replaces Luciano Spalletti, exonerated after the shameful thud in Norway (3-0) who has prejudiced the path of the Azzurri to the 2026 World Cup.

Rino Gattuso arrives after Claudio Ranieri’s “no”, the “secular pope” who seemed destined for the bench of Italy – was already an agreement – but who refused with a WhatsApp: he prefers to stay in Rome, where he closed his coaching career and is about to begin the managerial one.

The FIGC, in the hours where the confusion reigned, had also contacted Stefano Pioli, who however had already promised Fiorentina, had probed the possibility of a sensational return of Roberto Mancini and assessed other profiles such as Fabio Cannavaro and Daniele De Rossi, all related to the “boys of 2006”, or the blues world champions in Germany. A real casting, confirming that the national team has lost the appeal of the past. The project that sees Gattuso CT and Cesare Prandelli DT of all the teams of Italy, is called – with an emphasis that seems an exaggerated peel given the moment – “blue for the blue”.

Who is Gattuso

Gennaro Gattuso called Rino and nicknamed Ringhio, 47 years old, Calabrian of Corigliano, married to two children, made humility and tenacity the pedestal of his extraordinary player career, spent almost all in Milan, and embellished with the triumph of Berlin, precisely in 2006, when Lippi’s Italy won the world cup. The personality, the charisma, the ringtop are the characteristics that brought as a dowry as a footballer and that in recent years have hidden his figure as a coach. But the new life on the bench told another truth. Gattuso’s path is in fact dotted with empty passages.

After the apprenticeship in the minor categories and on the outskirts of football (exonerated in Zion and Palermo, halved in Crete), Gattuso collected the first – and unique – satisfaction of his career when he brought Pisa from Serie C to Serie B. It happened ten years ago. Since then the gratifications have been very few. Ringhio trained for two years each two clubs in the elite of our football, Milan and Naples, without however ever being able to hit the qualification in the Champions League. The best result was, in both clubs, a 5th place. It didn’t go better abroad. Forgettable his experience at Valencia (termination of the contract), just as a jump in the dark was the stage at Marseille (exonerated). In the last season he trained La Hajduk of Split, placing himself in 3rd place in the non -irresistible Croatian championship and thus still missing the qualification for the Champions League.

The narrative that has always accompanied Ringhio combines the indisputable human skills all a rhetoric that refers to the “sweaty shirt”, the determination of those who “spit blood”, to the ferocity with which every game situation is faced. Who knows if all this can be utility to a group, the current one, which certainly has a vague concept of blue identity but which also, despite himself, is poor from a point of view of technical quality and international caliber. Italy today boasts a single certified champion, the goalkeeper Gigio Donnarumma.

The rest of the team floats in a ureal mediocrity, with some good players (stretcher, tonals) and a majority of honest trades who would not find space in the first national national six in the world. It is with these guys that the new CT will have to deal. Gattuso’s candidacy was supported by Gigi Buffon, head of delegation of Italy and his former teammate in the national team. In support of the arrival of the new CT, Bonucci were also “enrolled”, who will support Gattuso in the field work, Zambrotta and Perrotta, perhaps also Barzagli. Former useful blues – in intentions – to recreate an atmosphere of belonging.

The road is uphill, the path to the 2026 world championship – despite the enlargement from 32 to 48 teams – will be a run -up, the playoff goal is manifested as a finish line. There will be worries and torments. The risk that Italy top another world championship – after the lack of qualifications in Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 – is a hypothesis to be taken seriously.