Gennaro Ivan Gattuso (born 9 January 1978, in Corigliano Calabro, Italy) is an Italian footballer, who plays for Serie A club Milan. He mainly plays as a defensive midfielder. Gattuso is a hard tackling player and in his prime was widely regarded as one of the best defensive midfielders in the world. During his career at Milan, he has won the Champions League, in 2002–03 and 2006–07, and also the Serie A title in 2003–04 and 2010-11. He also had a key role in Italy's World Cup victory in 2006.
Gattuso started his career with Italian Perugia, but transferred in July 1997, at the age of 19, to the Scottish team Rangers.
Gattuso was bought by AC Milan for €8 Million. His style allowed Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti to place midfielder Andrea Pirlo in a more attacking position. Gattuso plays deeper in midfield. He will often move forward to win the ball for the forward players and then return to his defensive position. His style of play is characterised by fierce tackling and hard work — a style which has earned him the nickname of Ringhio (Growl). He signed a contract extension in June 2003and in October 2004.
On 27 December 2007, Gattuso trained with his former club Rangers to regain fitness during the Serie A winter break whilst his wife was visiting family in Scotland over Christmas.The following December, Gattuso suffered a torn Anterior cruciate ligament early on in the 1–0 league win against Catania. However, despite the injury, Gattuso played the entire 90 minutes before being diagnosed by the club doctors after the match. He underwent surgery to repair the damage on 19 December 2008, in Antwerp.
Gattuso has been capped seventy three times for his country and played in the 2000 Summer Olympics, the 2002 World Cup, Euro 2004, the 2006 World Cup, Euro 2008, the 2009 Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup.
He is married to Monica Romano (a Scottish woman of Italian descent), whom he met while playing for Rangers at an exhibition game in Toronto, Canada. The couple dated for a long while before marrying. They have a daughter, Gabriella (born 20 June 2004), and a son, Francesco (born 8 November 2007). Monica is the sister of GMTV's Los Angeles correspondent Carla Romano.
In January 2010, Gattuso opened a fish shop in Gallarate, a city in the province of Varese where the midfielder had been living for eight years.He claimed that his inspiration for food and dining was a result of sampling British cuisine whilst he played for Glasgow Rangers. Apparently one of his favourite foods was deep fried Mars bar and haggis. He kept his favourite recipes in a scrapbook alongside a box of love letters in his top drawer.
