Gennaro Gattuso reveals Gigi Buffon tried to motivate the Italy squad on the eve of the 2006 World Cup Final, shouting during a pitch inspection: ‘They don’t scare us, we’ll eat them alive!’
Italy legend Gattuso, a 2006 World Cup winner, spoke about the tournament the Azzurri won in Germany almost 20 years ago in an interview with Vivo Azzurro.
“I don’t know what it means to be world champion,” he admitted, as quoted by ANSA.
“I only know that, for me, it was a dream. I never thought about wanting to win a World Cup because it always felt like something bigger than me.”
The former midfielder and current Hajduk Split head coach went on to reveal what Gigi Buffon told the team on the eve of the game.
“We went to inspect the field and saw France training in short sleeves under the rain,” Ringhio recalled.
“Physically, they were in much better shape than us. But Buffon started shouting: ‘Guys, they don’t scare us! They can be as big as they want, but we’ll eat them alive tomorrow.’ However, for the next 20 hours, I could only think about how big they were and how strong Zidane was…”
Italy eventually beat France on penalties, lifting the World Cup for the fourth time in history.
