Gennaro Gattuso, former soccer player and manager of AC Milan, resigned from San Siro (Image via: Sky Sports)

Gennaro Gattuso Resigns from AC Milan

The Italian ended 2 years crusade with its former team. Gennaro Gattuso, the former professional soccer player and the manager of AC Milan, bade “addio” to AC Milan, after managing the team for 3 seasons (2017-2019) on Tuesday (28/5).

Gennaro Gattuso was known as a fiery manager, who led the team with iron fist and fair discipline. Before managing main AC Milan, Gattuso proved his worth by managing the AC Milan U-19 for Campionato Nazionale Primavera (youth competition conducted by Serie A) which led them to 3rd place in the competition.

Considering his success with the youth, the former Milan midfielder took the mantle from the sacked Vincenzo Montella. Milan was distraught at first, before Gattuso got a grip of them and led them to 10 wins and 3 draws across 13 fixtures in Serie A. Last April, Gennaro Gattuso signed an extension contract until 2020/2021.

However, this alone was not enough. These wins and draws are insufficient to deliver Milan to its foremost goal, to come back once more to the prestigious UEFA Champions League for the next season. In other words, AC Milan failed to secure the fourth place.

AC Milan was renowned to be the second club with the most UCL trophies, seven trophies, second only to Real Madrid. 

The batch was instead filled by the derby rival Inter Milan (4th in the standing) and Atalanta (3rd in the standing), which for the first time in their club history qualified to UCL. While, AC Milan had to satisfy themselves by playing the UEFA Europa League again next season.

Turned out, the disappointment also struck Gattuso. In 48 hours since the rumors regarding his resignation had been buzzing around since Monday, Gennaro Gattuso finalized his resignation from San Siro. Unfortunately, Gattuso's reign had to end in null achievement from domestic and European competitions. Throughout his managerial career, Gennaro Gattuso had managed 4 clubs prior to Milan. His current best lies with AC Milan.

On the same day, Leonardo, sporting director for AC Milan, also resigned following Gattuso’s departure.