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Valencia has appointed AC Milan great Gennaro Gattuso as its next manager despite heavy pushback from its fan base.
Gattuso, 44, joins the Spanish side after recent managerial stints with AC Milan and Napoli. Last season after being linked with Tottenham, he signed on to become Fiorentina’s manager only to leave the club less than a month later.
But his history of controversial comments has stirred up a resistance among Valencia fans who started the #NoToGattuso movement. In 2008, he openly declared that “marriage is between a man and a woman” after saying that same-sex was “strange.” In 2013, Gattuso was heavily criticized for saying, “I can’t see women in soccer” after AC Milan named Barbara Berlusconi as one of its CEOs.
“I am very different from how I have been described for 12 months now,” Gattuso told Italian outlet Corriere della Sera yesterday. “They took comments from different years, without context and with the aim of destabilizing someone’s life.
“I hope to do the job I love in peace and be judged for that alone. Accordingly for who I am really.”
Valencia’s most successful period in recent history came in the earlier 2000s, when it won two La Liga titles and a UEFA Cup (now the Europa League) under Rafa Benítez. It was also Champions League runner-up in consecutive seasons in 1999–2000 and ’00–01.
However, the club has won only one trophy in the last decade (2018–19 Copa del Rey), although it lost in a penalty-kick shootout in the Copa del Rey final this season before finishing ninth in the league.
With a two-year contract through 2024, Gattuso will be tasked with bringing the club back into Champions League contention after three straight seasons finishing no higher than ninth. Gattuso won his only trophy as a manager with Napoli in the ’19–20 Coppa Italia.
