Gennaro Gattuso has revealed that his dad threatened to punch him if he didn't sign for Rangers in 1997.
Then a teenage prospect making his name in the Italian second tier, the Scottish giants came in with a seizable offer for his services. Gattuso didn't initially want to accept, though, having not been keen to swap sunny Umbria for the less tropical Glasgow.
But after a firm conversation with his carpenter father, Francessco, he shook hands with manager Walter Smith and famously became a Ger.
"I didn't want to go to Glasgow. I had played two games in Serie B and was promoted to Serie A with Perugia, where I played eight games without a contract," Gattuso, who manages Valencia, recently explained during an interview in Spain.
"Then I played the under-19 finals with Italy. One day, my father comes and tells me that a representative of Glasgow Rangers has come to town and has offered a contract to me. I didn't want to leave and I told this to my father.
"He told me that the money they were offering was so much he couldn't even write down the total figure. He told me it was four times his total earnings in his lifetime.
"When I still said no, he said he would punch me if I didn't accept it, so I signed for Rangers! I went to Glasgow and I didn't know anyone and didn't have two words in English. But after two weeks, I looked more Scottish than a Scottish player.
"I trained three or four times a day, I would go to the gym for hours. I built myself up with this mentality. I knew I didn't have great technique, but I prepared myself to mentally kill my opponent. I have dedicated my life to football."
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Unfortunately for the Ibrox faithful, the no-nonsense Italian didn't do enough during his 15 months with Rangers to convince Smith's successor, Dick Advocaat, to keep him around. The Dutchman sold Gattuso to Salernitana for £4million, only for the future midfield general to become a two-time Champions League winner with AC Milan and lift the World Cup with Italy in 2006.
Despite the short length of Gattuso's stay in Glasgow, the Valencia boss looks back on his coming-of-age spell fondly, having met his Scottish-Italian wife, Monica Romano, in the city. "I have great memories of my season with Rangers. I still love that period," Gattuso, nicknamed 'Rino' (rhino) thanks to his style of play, told FourFourTwo.
"Glasgow was the place where I first started to think like a professional footballer. When I played for Perugia, deep down, I thought I lacked the mental strength to go out on the pitch and play without the fear of making a mistake. My legs would be shaking, my emotions getting the better of me. But when I arrived in Scotland, it was all completely different."
