Gattuso revisits early days at Milan, important team-mates and autoimmune disease

Gennaro Gattuso has spoken in detail about his time at AC Milan, from his arrival as a player not up to scratch, to experiencing great success.

For many fans, there are few who embody the Milan spirit like Gattuso, who played for the club for 13 seasons. His time at the Rossoneri ran from 1999 to 2012, and the midfielder won 10 trophies with the club.

His honours include two Champions Leagues (in 2003 and 2007), one Coppa Italia (in 2003), two European Super Cups (2003 and 2007), two Scudetti (2003–04 and 2010–11), two Supercoppa Italiani (2004 and 2011), and the Club World Cup (2007).

As a Milan player, he shared the dressing room with Maldini, Costacurta, Albertini, Boban, Shevchenko, Kaka and others. Today, as Lazio coach, he looks back on those years with a different perspective.

Yesterday afternoon at the Teatro Sociale in Trento, Gattuso retraced his Milan years including his great team-mates, the toughest episodes of his career and the tougher times. MilanVibes relayed his words on stage.

During a Milan-Juve match, you get a red card, you walk past Capello, you tell him ‘shame on you’ and unspeakable things…

“I remember so many things I’m not proud of. I experienced matches with great energy, with incredible adrenaline. Sometimes when I look back, I stop and immediately change. It’s difficult to see myself again; I would never want a Gattuso in my team.”

Alexandre Pato arrived at Milan at a very young age and was held back several times by injuries…

“He was so young when he arrived at Milan. He was really unlucky; he ran incredibly fast, and perhaps his muscles suffered in the long run. I fondly remember one match, we were playing in Verona against Chievo.

“Ale had lost three or four balls on his way out, but he didn’t chase down his opponent. I started shouting at him, and he signalled me to shut up. I lost my mind, I was about to eat him… (laughs).”

Halfway through the interview, a video message from Zvonimir Boban was broadcast: “Rino is extraordinary, special, I immediately understood that he was ahead of everyone, in fact he was World Champion.”

Boban’s words take you back to your early years at Milan and the champions from whom you learned your trade…

“For me, they were fundamental: Boban, Maldini, Costacurta, and Albertini . You just had to observe them and copy and paste. They never got their attitude wrong.

“It was easy, for me it was a dream, I wasn’t up to that Milan. I could tell by the noise the ball made when I kicked it compared to when they kicked it.”

The young Gattuso also experienced Milanello through photographs of Milan’s past victories. Did those images become a motivation?

“Inside Milanello there were tons of photos of trophies we’d won, and in the early years we won little or nothing. So I worked to put my photos at Milanello too. I have to thank these champions and special people.”

Who between Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini and Silvio Berlusconi managed to intimidate you the most?

“Paolo. A true all-round champion. That player who, to avoid missing a single training session, would take Aulin at 39 even when he was ill. Incredibly talented, and embarrassingly so from a technical and tactical standpoint.”

The mural of Baresi was defaced, did that make you angry?

“Very, but we live in a difficult, problematic world.”

You stopped playing at 34 after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, ocular myasthenia gravis…

“I still had something left, but I stopped playing because I contracted an autoimmune disease at 34, ocular myasthenia gravis. I’ve been taking cortisone for 15 years, and if I don’t take it, I get double vision, meaning I can’t see clearly.

“There are people with the same disease as me who spend four or five months in bed, unable to move. I always thought, ‘Imagine if they’d told me I had five months to live.’ So I accepted it, I work with it, I’m stronger than the disease.

“But it’s hard: taking cortisone every day isn’t easy. I haven’t had any alcohol for almost seven years, and with cortisone, I’ve shut my mouth. Someone else in my place would be 200 kg.

“And we keep going because there’s always worse in life; the important thing is to look forward until God gives us the strength to continue.”