He also wants to play: the new Azzurri coach Gennaro Gattuso and the fight against his image

At the end of his presentation as Italian national coach, Gennaro Gattuso said it again: "I can only promise commitment and passion." As if anyone had doubted that . . .

All of Italy expects little else from him. When Gattuso was still strutting across the pitch, he didn't stand out with his delicate passes and pirouettes. He ran – somewhat awkwardly, but tirelessly. He slid tackles. He screamed. He glared menacingly at opponents and referees. His nickname Rino quickly mutated into Ringhio, which means growl. The midfield belonged to him.

In Italy, Gattuso is almost synonymous with an unconditional, even exorbitant, will to win. Recently, the Gazzetta dello Sport wrote: "Where there's a fight, there's Gattuso."

Italian football fans love their aesthetes like Roberto Baggio and Andrea Pirlo. But they adore hard workers like Gattuso just as much – especially now that the Azzurri have reached a new low. They've missed the last two World Cups. And now, after a 3-0 defeat to Norway, their chances of qualifying for the next World Cup are once again in jeopardy. The Italians really needed Gattuso, the motivator, in the middle of the pitch.

At 47, however, he now finds himself on the sidelines. Under his predecessor, Luciano Spalletti, the Azzurri had already appeared confused and toothless at Euro 2024. The brilliant but cerebral club coach seemed increasingly unsuitable for the role of national team coach. He became increasingly entangled in system issues. As a result, he also lost support among his players. Recently, several footballers declined to be called up. And the Azzurri embarrassed themselves in Oslo.

The situation is reminiscent of 2019, when Gattuso became coach of SSC Napoli. Before that, the squad had rebelled against star coach Carlo Ancelotti. Gattuso brought Napoli back to success and salvaged the season with a cup victory. It remains the only title of his coaching career so far. Gattuso missed out on a second one this spring. As coach of Hajduk Split, he was in contention for the Croatian championship until the final round.

His coaching career began in 2013 in Sion, where he quickly transitioned from player to player-coach. President Christian Constantin says he saw in him the profile of a leader—although that only lasted for three games.

Later, Gattuso made headlines in Palermo, Crete, and Pisa. These weren't the easiest years of his apprenticeship. The former world-class player found himself at precarious clubs, with opaque structures and unpaid wages. In Crete, he held an explosive press conference in a mix of Italian, Greek, and English.

This wasn't the only scandal. As Napoli coach, he also clashed with referees – just as he had been in his rough past. Last March, he verbally attacked former professional and current TV pundit Josko Jelicic during a live interview in Croatia, calling him a "bad person." Gattuso didn't take kindly to the criticism of Hajduk following their 3-0 defeat to eventual champions Rijeka.

The growling never went away, even with coach Ringhio. And it was so loud that some critics now wonder whether Gattuso has the stature to be a national team coach.

However, the missteps in European football also reveal another facet of this hothead. When players in Pisa and Crete weren't receiving their wages, he paid them from his own bank account. After almost two years as head coach of his beloved club, Milan, he waived severance pay – a sum total of around €11 million. Later, he also refused payment from Valencia CF when he was forced to leave after just 22 matches. In both cases, he demanded that the club compensate his staff well.

This mixture of grinta and modesty also stems from his origins, from a life of hardship and deprivation. Gattuso grew up in humble circumstances in the deep south, in Calabria. The harsh Schiavonea climate shaped him. He played endless matches on the beach, using diesel barrels from fishing boats as goalposts. In the evenings, he opened the sports bag of his father Franco, who played as an amateur in Serie D. He liked the smell of the camphor oil and slipped on the oversized jersey.

At just 12 years old, Gattuso left his hometown to play for Perugia's youth team. The club's management witnessed his first outburst during a trial. They took him off after just five minutes, and Gattuso was furious. The then sporting director, Walter Sabatini, recounted in a TV documentary how he had to calm the agitated boy: "Don't worry, we've already chosen you." Gattuso's performance in those few minutes was so furious that he immediately won over the club.

When Perugia refused to let him move on seven years later, he simply escaped from the boarding school window one night and signed with Glasgow Rangers. The news of the youth player's disappearance was broadcast on Rai 1's prime-time news program. It was episodes like these that made Gattuso a Calcio legend.

Perhaps the most amusing one comes from the moment of his greatest success. It also reflects how Gattuso viewed himself. While he had steadily improved his ball control in Milan's star-studded lineup of Paolo Maldini, Kaká, and Rui Costa, Gattuso didn't want to redefine his limits before the penalty shootout in the 2006 World Cup final against France. When then-Azzurri coach Marcello Lippi wanted him to play as the potentially decisive fifth shooter, Gattuso fled and hid under the bench.

Fabio Grosso scored for him and clinched the World Cup. And when Gattuso rushed out from under the bench to celebrate, his shorts got caught. So he celebrated in his underwear.

Now he sits on the Italian coaching bench, after years of struggling in lower leagues and mediocre results at top clubs like Milan, Napoli, Marseille, and Valencia. An experienced grand seigneur like Claudio Ranieri would actually have been the first choice for the Azzurri. He declined. Five-time Champions League winner Ancelotti didn't even speculate on a chance and committed to arch-rivals Brazil. Roberto Mancini, the 2021 European champion coach, preferred the petrodollars of Saudi Arabia after failing to qualify for the World Cup and left in 2023.

The Nazionale is no longer a magnet for coaches. Perhaps because clubs and the association have failed for years to consistently develop the numerous talented players. They are ultimately missing from the national team or spurn call-ups.

Gattuso wants to primarily work on the sense of belonging; that's his top priority. The players should come to the training session with a smile, he said during the first press conference. Before that, however, he'll certainly give them his penetrating stare and have a serious talk. "If your teammate isn't running for you, it'll be difficult. We need to change that aspect above all else," he said.

With Gattuso and the Azzurri, two players with untapped potential are coming together. "It's the right moment for him," said his former colleague and current team coordinator Gianluigi Buffon . Buffon was still playing as a goalkeeper, while Gattuso was already coaching. "We always struggled against Rino's teams," Buffon said during his presentation. "You could see that they had a clear identity, that they had put a lot of work into it."

Buffon has to say that, as he was partly responsible for the choice. But the story is similar from other clubs. At a downsized Milan, Gattuso played a well-ordered game and missed the Champions League spots by just one point. In Napoli, they remember dynamic football with clear instructions to the players.

He once received the most significant praise from Luis Enrique. When Gattuso was coaching in the Spanish league from 2022 to 2023, the current Champions League holder said in an interview: "I like Valencia's football. You might think Gattuso, as an Italian, is a defensive coach. But he's the exact opposite." Valencia has structure, possession, and energy. "I enjoy watching them." Gattuso doesn't just want to bite. He also wants to play.