After Tottenham fans led a campaign against hiring Gennaro Gattuso, women’s football legend Carolina Morace assured he is ‘against any form of discrimination.’
The former Milan and Napoli coach was in talks with Spurs this week just days after leaving Fiorentina, but a social media frenzy accusing him of being racist, sexist and homophobic saw the club back away.
Among the quotes attributed to him was his suggestion women shouldn’t be involved in football, but if he might’ve thought that many years ago, it is not the case now.
“Rino Gattuso and I have been working together in Milan, and, since then, we have never stopped to discuss and share professional ideas and views,” wrote Carolina Morace on Twitter.
“Gattuso is against any form of discrimination and is a person with rare gifts. Those who say the contrary do not know him at all.”
Morace is a legend of women’s football with 105 goals in 153 caps for Italy, then becoming a coach after her retirement in 1998.
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She became the first woman to coach a men’s professional football team with Viterbese in 1999 and has been married to former Australian women’s football player Nicola Jane Williams since 2012.
Gattuso is well-known for his lack of filter, often peppering his post-match interviews with swearing or comments in the Calabrese dialect.
He speaks English, largely thanks to his time playing for Glasgow Rangers, which is also where he met his wife.