French Ligue 1 club, Marseille announced the appointment of Gennaro Gattuso as the club’s new manager on Wednesday, September 27.

The former Italian defender is coming in to replace coach Marcelino Garcia Toral who resigned as Marseille’s coach last week.

Italian World Cup winner Gattuso, who spent the majority of his hugely successful playing career with AC Milan, had lately been linked to Marseille’s French rivals Lyon.

He has previously coached AC Milan and Napoli and has been a free agent since leaving Valencia at the start of this season.

After being named the manager of Marseille, the 45-year-old Italian tactician said, “I am very happy and proud to join Marseille — a club and a stadium, the Velodrome, in which I had the opportunity to play and which is famous throughout Europe for the passion and fervour that emanates from it.”

Marseille is currently ranked seventh in Ligue 1 after Sunday’s 4-0 away loss to Paris Saint-Germain.

This season, they are competing in the Europa League and will welcome Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion next week for their second group-stage game in the competition.

Gattuso’s first game in charge will be against Monaco on Saturday, September 30. The game will kick off at 8 p.m.

Last week, Marseille were in a storm after the then club’s coach Marcelino resigned after being in charge of the club for just seven games.

He left the club following a confrontational meeting between fan representatives and the club management. Reports in Italy claimed that President Pablo Longoria and a number of his top colleagues were threatened and advised to get ready for “war” if they didn’t resign.

Longoria, who was close to Marcelino, withdrew to think about his stance