Pizza Gattuso

Guardian Unlimited Football | World Cup 2006 | Italy crave a kind of redemption: "Italy's football fans usually idolise players who ooze style and class. This time, however, their choice is not Francesco Totti or Alessandro Del Piero, the golden boys, or even Fabio Cannavaro, the universally admired captain and linchpin of a defence that has conceded only a single goal in Germany. Their affections have been engaged by the bearded Gattuso, the hard man of the midfield, the terrier, the spoiler, the warrior who embodies the success of Marcello Lippi's squad in overcoming a series of recent events that could have destroyed their will to compete before they had even kicked a ball in the tournament.

Gattuso incarnates the quality known to Italians as grinta, or fighting spirit."