Gattuso defends himself: “Racist? I will not allow someone, with terrible accusations, to hinder my work”

Gennaro Gattuso He has come out in his own defense of the accusations made against him by the former president of Valencia Miguel Zorio, who accused him of sexist, racist and xenophobic. The Italian coach, in statements to The Gazzeta dello Sport After returning from Singapore, where he met with Peter Lim and committed to Valencia until 2024, he stressed that “I will not allow someone, with terrible accusations, to hinder my work.”

Miguel Zorío, through a statement from the Marea Valencianista platform, which he directs and from which he opposes the management of Peter Lim in Valencia, retrieved from the newspaper library some phrases attributed to Gattuso in the past and that according to the former vice president, it had been the reason why Tottenham refused to sign him as coach for the London club. Phrases like: “I really can’t see women in football” (2013) or “marriage should be between a man and a woman, gay marriage is very strange to me” (2008).

Gattuso, as reported by La Gazzeta, emphasizes: “I come from a small town in Calabria, Corigliano Calabro. I made myself, as a child I went to play in Scotland, at Glasgow Rangers: do you know what it can mean for a ‘southern’ being out of Italy and showing everyone that you can get away with it? I built my career with hard work, commitment, sweat. Nobody gave me anything.”

Bakayoko’s support

The Italian coach, who received the support of Bakayoko against the accusations of being racist, explains in La Gazzeta: “My story speaks for me. Am I racist? Am I homophobic? Am I xenophobic? Am I sexist? But are we crazy? “Here is the time to calm down.” In this sense, he explains that “the phrase about women, pronounced at the time of Bárbara Berlusconi’s entry into football, it was intended as a defense of Galliani’s work that had been interrupted”.

“Racist? So why would Bakayoko have signed when he was in Napoli? I have never had anything against black players, many of whom have been my teammates and friends. What do these gentlemen who talk about racism know about me, these lions who hide behind a keyboard or behind a nickname?“, remarks Gattuso in the Italian newspaper.