“In 1999, Rino joined Milan from Salernitana, the summer after we\u2019d won the Scudetto with Zaccheroni. We\u2019d met during an Under-21 training camp: he asked me about Milan and I asked him about Scotland, where he\u2019d been before returning to Italy. Rino and I met during an Under-21 training camp: he asked me about Milan and I asked him about Scotland, where he\u2019d been before returning to Italy. He was hungry for knowledge, full of enthusiasm and a healthy desire to make his mark. And he had humility and courage. It was infectious\u2026 You couldn\u2019t help but love him.\u201d<\/p>\n
“Gattuso always listens to what he\u2019s told, even when he\u2019s angry. His stubbornness doesn\u2019t stop him from considering advice. As young lads, ambition was what united us. That feeling made us rivals for a place in the team: he played more than me, and over time I realised that was fair. But we were both ravenous in our love for what we did and for the shirt we wore.”<\/p>\n
“The best moment? It\u2019s inevitable to mention the victories because they bring you together. So lifting the Champions League trophy in Athens was unforgettable. But we get on well off the pitch too: we\u2019re neighbours in the mountains and I hope, sooner or later, to convince him to come with me for a nice walk. Because I don\u2019t think he\u2019s much of a skier… (laughs, ed.) The hardest moment? When he wanted to stick a fork in Pirlo\u2019s back as a joke and I got in the way… (laughs, ed.). No, come on, I\u2019m being serious. The hardest moment was when I read in the papers that he might be leaving Milan, but I didn\u2019t believe it, so I asked him if it was true and he said yes. I felt a great sense of sadness inside. He made me a promise and I hope he keeps it. He told me that, if we qualified for the World Cup, we\u2019d have a drink together. I\u2019ll be waiting for him in the mountains, so then… we\u2019ll go for a walk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“In 1999, Rino joined Milan from Salernitana, the summer after we\u2019d won the Scudetto with Zaccheroni. We\u2019d met…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[175206,85,46,2971,175205,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-362933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-g-gattuso","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-italy","12":"tag-m-ambrosini","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}