Gattuso on his player: He's Real Madrid quality, but would blow through 100 million

Lazio manager Gennaro Gattuso is reportedly impressed with Nuno Tavares's performance but used a rather unconventional analogy to explain what the player needs to reach the next level in his game.

“Nuno Tavares has the quality to play for Real Madrid,” the coach began his comments to DAZN.

“I’ll give you an example I used a few days ago in a conversation with friends: if his parents died and Nuno inherited 100 million, it would all be gone in five years.”

“This player should be at Real Madrid... Tavares plays with his right foot, with his left foot, he has speed... After a match, he needs time to recover. He’s a polite kid, but you need to get inside his head. He is a talented and very strong player,” the manager described him.

Gattuso insisted that “Nuno Tavares could easily have spent 10 years at Real Madrid because of the qualities he possesses.”

The 26-year-old Tavares first made a name for himself at Benfica (breaking into the first team in 2019), before Arsenal signed him in 2021 for 10 million euros. However, subsequent loan spells saw the Portuguese defender at Marseille and Nottingham Forest.

The left-back initially arrived at Lazio on loan in the summer of 2024, with the Italian club activating his buy-out option a year later.