The former coach to the student with whom he won the title in 2006: “We are all with you, moving forward together. Rino has a good team and will do everything not to miss an appointment that has been missing for too long”
“We’ll make it, Rino. We’re all with you and we’re all going to the World Cup together.” These are not clichés, because between Marcello Lippi and Rino Gattuso there was never any need. If anything, the opposite: Gattuso literally grabbed his coach by the neck to prevent him from resigning after having raised the cup to the blue sky of Berlin. “You have to stay! You have to stay!”, she shouted at him. But it was too late: Lippi had made up his mind, exhausted by personal attacks. His midfielder didn’t take it well. Out of affection.
heir
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Marcello Lippi has always been the number one fan of his student, his friend, his colleague Rino Gattuso: one of his own, one of the “Team” that won the World Cup with the strength of the group and perhaps desperation, against everything and everyone. Because before going to Germany there was half of Italy asking for the head of the coach, Buffon and Cannavaro, the three true heroes of that tournament. Now it’s not like twenty years ago, with the system overwhelmed by Calciopoli. But a coach knows that, if something goes wrong, he will be the first to be targeted. It’s part of the game. Gattuso knows that, arriving after two World Cups on TV, the future is at stake, despite having started in September in an already compromised situation. As the song says, he will never be alone. The players are with him. And from afar, but ideally very close, Lippi is also nearby.
“nano like me”
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From Viareggio, the world champion coach sends the most sincere good luck: “I hug you, Rino. You were one of my best students, we won a World Cup together, we were a “team”. On the bench you are so much like me in character, in relationships with the players, in vision. You remind me… Lippi. You deserve the best. You deserve to qualify for the immense passion that you have always put into everything you do, on the pitch, as a coach, in life. wolf, dear colleague. You have a good team and you will do everything not to miss this event that we have missed for too long. We are all with you and we will all go to the World Cup together! Just to be direct and without beating around the bush, on the day of the appointment, Lippi telephoned Gattuso to congratulate him and simply tell him: “Now you’re coach, and you know what that means: your business”. Rino recounted, amused and a little emotional, those words between Gravina and Buffon.
create the group
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Lippi has never gone unbalanced by chance. When they asked him who was the most Lippian of the “world cups”, he could be a diplomat. From Cannavaro to Nesta, from Pirlo to Gilardino, from Grosso to Inzaghi, many had embarked on a career. Instead he replied without hesitation: “Gattuso”. It’s not a question of tactics, of three or four defense, but of attitude. Of the right balance between tactics and freedom, between technique and competitiveness, between lightness and rigor. Lippi shielded his boys, like Bearzot decades earlier. Now Gattuso protects the team and preaches lightness, the only moment in which he “denies” Lippi by asking his team to forget the World Cup and European Championships won, starting from scratch with Northern Ireland.
two center forwards
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Gattuso has always had Lippi in mind since the first day he started coaching. He hears from him periodically, asks him for advice, talks to him about this blue adventure. Coincidentally, Lippi often played with two center forwards and began the World Cup with Toni and Gilardino together. Coincidentally, Lippi had his own group. Gattuso toured Europe, took about eighty planes, studied the players to create a group too, without listening to those who ask him for other names. Like Lippi, he has made his choices and continues with them. Lippi could never do without Gattuso on the pitch. Shortly before flying to Germany, Rino had hurt his leg, but seriously. An injury. He tried to hide the injury from Lippi and the doctor Castellacci for a couple of days, putting himself under the sheets so as not to show the injury. Once he was caught and realized the risk, he shouted: “You won’t leave me in Coverciano. I’ll tie myself to the bus!”. He had scary eyes. Lippi looked at Castellacci and asked him: “Can he recover?”. The doctor replied: “Another one, no, it would take two months, Rino maybe can.” They took him to Germany without saying anything to the press “who otherwise would have crucified us” and we know how it ended. Rino never forgot.
lippi’s push
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Gattuso was the struggling midfielder of that Italy, he ran for Pirlo and Totti, and Lippi never entertained the idea of losing him. It is understood that Gattuso also dreamed at night of becoming coach, but he didn’t imagine it so suddenly. Buffon’s call, in this drama, after it was over with Spalletti and Ranieri had said no, changed everything. Twenty years after Berlin, football has changed: Gattuso does not have Buffon, Cannavaro, Pirlo, Camoranesi, Totti, De Piero, or even Gattuso, but his national team cannot be as poor as the defeatist stereotype of the first hour. This Italy has a soul that was seen in the six qualifying matches, or rather five and a half, because the second half against Norway was different and did not change the standings, but the morale did. There is a Gattuso-style Italy with an infinite soul. And Lippi was next to push him to America.
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