A Pair of Injuries to Italians, One Slightly Older Than the Other
By: Martha | November 7th, 2006
Talk about adding insult to injury (or something): After picking up both a loss and a nasty shiner during Milan’s match at Atalanta, Gennaro Gattuso — AKA the most awesomely beastly midfielder on earth — found out yesterday that his knee is screwed up, and he’s expected to be out for several weeks. For the love of God — as if Milan didn’t have enough problems already. Sigh. As I may have mentioned here a time or two, I adore Gattuso. Actually, though he’s not exactly a child, he may be the least elderly of my favorite Italians (my men Maldini and Corini are both on the verge of social security). I love that he’s so valued by Italian football fans, largely for his work ethic and nasty aggression — I can’t imagine a player like him being a mainstay of the national team in, say, England, for example. Or ever France. Viera, tough as he is, has a lot of elegance to him, whereas Gattuso’s impressive stills are usually carefully hidden beneath a cloak of asskicking.
And, in other damaged Italians news, legendary goalkeeper Dino Zoff was reportedly mugged by four men and kicked in the face Sunday night while trying to get out of his car. The muggers, whom press reports needlessly point out aren’t Italian (as if any self-respecting Italian would mug Dino Zoff), made off with €1000, in addition to the cell phones and watches carried by Mr. and Mrs. Zoff. Ever the macho footballer, Zoff refused go taken to the hospital.
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Gattuso = Makelele. Although I would take Gattuso 9/10 times. This is a tough blow for the Azzurri, but anything that limits Milan’s scudetto challenge is fine with me.
Anyway, does anyone else think Corini should get called up by Donadoni? I know he’s like 37, but who cares? His form has been great and it wouldn’t hurt to see what he can do in the upcoming friendly against Turkey.
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1)Good observation about Makelele, Paul — I’m with you, though, and prefer Gattuso every time.
2)If Corini was called into the national team I would fly to Italy and bow down at Donadoni’s home. (Though he might not actually view that as a positive thing, so maybe I should keep my mouth shut.) Seeing what he could do in a friendly would be great, though when it comes to competitive matches I wonder who he could realistically displace in the side …Posted from
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I would be on a plane with you, first to bow down, then to see Corini pull on the Azzurri jersey. I think he would be a natural replacement for Pirlo, if Pirlo was tired or injured (knock on wood). I can’t see him replacing Pirlo though for a competetive game. With Gattuso out, I could see him doing the dirty work that Gattuso does. He tackles like a maniac and has the endurance for it. Too bad he’s not a wide player, because that’s where I think there should be lots of experimenting. Camo and Iaquinta don’t cut it for me and as much as it pains me to say it, Del Piero shouldn’t be out there either.
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I agree about Corini being able to step for an injured Gattuso (he clearly relishes playing that digger role, when necessary), but I didn’t want to say it because I don’t want to curse Rino’s. Given the public outcry when Donadoni puts an unconventional team on the pitch for even a friendly (he and Sven could have a talk about that — at least Donadoni doesn’t use 11 subs, though), it’ll take some balls for him to try out new (esp old) faces v Turkey, but I’d love to see him do it.
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