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Inter Milan

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Internazionale
Inter logo
Inter logo
Full nameFootball Club
Internazionale Milano SpA
Nickname(s)Nerazzurri (the Black-Blues)
La Beneamata (the Cherished)
Il Biscione (the Big Grass Snake)
Interista
FoundedMarch 9,1908
GroundStadio Giuseppe Meazza (San Siro),
Milan, Italy
Capacity82,955
ChairmanItaly Massimo Moratti
Head CoachItaly Roberto Mancini
LeagueSerie A
2006-07Serie A, 1st

Football Club Internazionale Milano is an Italian football club based in Milan, Lombardy, which plays in Serie A. The club was founded March 9, 1908. In Italy it is commonly known as Inter or Internazionale, but it is often incorrectly named Inter Milan in English-speaking countries.

Inter has been one of the most successful clubs in the history of Italian football, having won 15 Scudetti, 5 Coppa Italia, and 3 Italian Super Cups (as of April 22, 2007). Inter has also won 2 European Cups (Champions League), 3 UEFA Cups, and has been World Champions two times. They are also the only club who always played in the Italian top tier.

The club wears blue and black stripes, which gives the origin of their Nerazzurri nickname. Inter has one of the biggest fan bases in Italy, along with its two biggest rivals, AC Milan and Juventus.

According to The Football Money League published by consultants Deloitte, in season 2005-06 Inter were the 7th highest earning football club in the world with an estimated revenue of €206.6 million.

Inter is a member of the G-14 organisation of leading European football clubs.

History

Pre-World War II

The club was founded on March 9, 1908, following a "schism" from the Milan Cricket and Football Club, now known as A.C. Milan. A group of Italians and Swiss (Giorgio Muggiani, a painter who also designed the club's logo, Bossard, Lana, Bertoloni, De Olma, Enrico Hintermann, Arturo Hintermann, Carlo Hintermann, Pietro Dell'Oro, Ugo and Hans Rietmann, Voelkel, Maner, Wipf, and Carlo Ardussi) were unhappy about the domination of Italians in the AC Milan team, and broke away from them, leading to the creation of Internazionale. From the beginning, the club was open to foreign players and thus lived up to her founding name.

The club won its very first Scudetto (championship) in 1910 and its second in 1920. The captain and coach of the first Scudetto was Virgilio Fossati, who was killed in World War I.

Their first Coppa Italia (Italian Cup) was won in 1938-39, led by the great legend Giuseppe Meazza, for whom the San Siro stadium is officially named, and a fifth league championship followed in 1940, despite an injury to Meazza. During the Fascist era, the name "Internazionale" was not looked upon kindly, and the club played as Ambrosiana, wearing white shirts emblazoned with a red cross. In 1932, the club was permitted to append its old moniker, and was known as Ambrosiana-Inter. Finally in 1942, the club reverted to its original name, Internazionale.

La Grande Inter

Following the war, Inter won its sixth championship in 1953 and the seventh in 1954. Following these titles, Inter was to enter the best years of its history, affectionately known as the era of La Grande Inter (The Great Inter). During this magnificent period, with Helenio Herrera as head coach, the club won 3 league championships in 1963, 1965 and 1966. The most famous moments during this decade also include Inter's 2 back-to-back European Cup wins. In 1964, Inter won the first of those tournaments, playing against the famous Spanish club Real Madrid. The next season, playing in their home stadium, the San Siro, they defeated two-time former champion, Benfica.

Following the golden era of the 1960s, Inter managed to win their eleventh league title in 1971 and their twelfth in 1980. Inter were defeated for the second time in five years in the final of the European Cup, going down 0-2 to Johan Cruijff's Ajax Amsterdam in 1972. During the 1970s and the 1980s, Inter also added two to its Coppa Italia tally, in 1977-78 and 1981-82.

Dark times

Led by the German trio of Andreas Brehme, Jürgen Klinsmann and Lothar Matthäus, Inter captured the 1989 Serie A championship and the Italian Supercup to open the following season.

The 1990s was a period of disappointment. Whilst their great rivals AC Milan and Juventus were achieving success both domestically and in Europe, Inter were left behind, with some mediocre positions in the standings, their worst coming in 1994 when they finished just 1 point from relegation. In the 1990s though Inter did achieve some European success with 3 UEFA Cup victories in 1991, 1994 and 1998.

With Massimo Moratti's takeover from Ernesto Pellegrini in 1995 Inter were promised more success with many high profile signings like Ronaldo, Christian Vieri and Hernan Crespo, with Inter twice breaking the world's record transfer fee in this period. However the 1990s remained a decade of disappointment and is the only decade in Inter's history in which they did not win a single Italian Serie A Championship. They were only 45 minutes away from capturing the Scudetto on May 5, 2002 when they needed to maintain a 2-1 advantage over Lazio at Rome's Olimpico stadium when Inter collapsed and let in three second-half Lazio goals that enabled Juventus to pip their bitter rivals to the championship. The 2003 Champions League was more disappointment they were tied 1-1 with AC Milan but the latter advanced on away goals.

Resurrection

On June 15 2005, Inter won the Coppa Italia, defeating AS Roma in the two-legged final 3-0 on aggregate (1-0 win in Milan and 2-0 win in Rome) and followed that up on 20 August 2005, by winning the Supercoppa Italiana after an extra-time 1-0 victory against original 04-05 Serie A champions Juventus (before being stripped of this title). This Super Cup win was Inter's first since 1989, coincidentally the same year since Inter last won the Scudetto before 2006. On 11 May 2006, Inter retained their Coppa Italia trophy by once again, defeating AS Roma with a 4-1 aggregate victory (A 1-1 scoreline in Rome and a 3-1 win at the Giuseppe Meazza, San Siro).

Inter was awarded the 2005-06 Serie A championship as they were the highest placed side (3rd) in the season's final league table after points were stripped from Juventus and AC Milan - both sides involved in the match fixing scandal that year. On 14 July 2006, The Italian Federal Appeal Commission found Serie A clubs Juventus, Lazio, Fiorentina, Reggina and AC Milan guilty of match-fixing and charged the 5 clubs with their respective punishments, (although all charges were later reduced in some capacity). So with the confirmed relegation of Juventus to Serie B (for the first ever time in their history) and the 8-point deduction for city rivals AC Milan, Inter became favorites to retain their Serie A title for the upcoming 2006-07 Serie A season.

During the season, Inter went on an incredible record-breaking run of 17 consecutive victories in Serie A, starting on September 25 2006 with a 4-1 home victory over Livorno, and ending on February 28 2007, after a 1-1 draw at home to Udinese. The 5-2 away win at Catania on February 25 2007 broke the original records of 15 matches held by Bayern Munich & Real Madrid from the "Big 5" (the top flight leagues in England, Italy, Spain, France & Germany). The run lasted for almost 5 months and makes Inter the record holder for the number of consecutive wins in the "Big 5" and holds among the best in European league football, with just Benfica (29 wins), Celtic (25 wins) and PSV Eindhoven (22 wins) bettering the run. Inter's form dipped a little as they scored 0-0 and 2-2 draws against relegation-battlers Reggina and slumping Palermo (respectively), the latter game featuring a second-half comeback after Palermo went up 2-0 at halftime. They could not keep their invincible form near the end of the season as well, as they lost their first game of the domestic season to Roma in the San Siro 3-1 thanks to two late Roma goals. Inter had enjoyed an unbeaten Serie A run for just under a year.

On April 22, 2007 Inter were crowned Serie A champions for the 2nd consecutive season after defeating Siena 2-1 at Stadio Artemio Franchi. Italian World Cup winning defender Marco Materazzi scored both goals in the 18th and 60th minute, with the latter being a penalty. This is the first time Inter have won the Scudetto, based on their league performance since 1989. In addition, within hours after clinching their 2nd consecutive league title, the club confirmed head coach Roberto Mancini had signed a 4-year extension to his current contract, with an option to extend it for a further 12 months, which, if extended, would expire at the end of the 2011-12 campaign.[1] Inter president Massimo Moratti claimed that this contractual agreement was made "some time ago".[2]

Other historical information

Inter has never been relegated out of the top flight in their entire history, which dates back all the way to 1908; a fact Nerazzurri fans hold in high regard. By comparison, AC Milan has been relegated twice despite winning two more scudetti. As of 2007, following Juve's relegation to Serie B for the 2006-07 season (see this article for more information) Inter remain the only Italian club that has never been relegated, and its century in the top flight (counting the upcoming season) is one of the longest unbroken runs of any club in the world.

The current honorary president and owner of Inter is Massimo Moratti. His father, Angelo Moratti, was the president of Inter during the club's golden era of the 1960s. Massimo, trying to emulate his father's great success, has spent an enormous amount of money in his time at the club to sign some of the world's best players in past and present generations, in an effort to win the scudetto for the first time since 1989. Up until 2006, Inter underachieved and there was frequent criticism of Moratti, but they were handed the Scudetto after the match fixing scandal. Moratti's team went on to easily win the 2006-2007 Scudetto as well, with a record-breaking run of 17 straight victories.[1]

Rivalry

Inter has several principal rivalries, most obviously arch-enemies AC Milan. The most notorious scoreline in the history of this fixture came in 3 March 1918, when Milan thrashed Inter 8 goals to 1. The rivalry is especially heated since Inter broke off from AC Milan. Inter was seen as the club of the bourgeoisie (nicknamed bauscia, a Milanese term meaning "braggart"), whereas AC Milan was the working-class team (nicknamed casciavit, meaning in the Milanese dialect "screwdrivers", with both reference to the workers that using these instruments, and to "awkwards") and was, and still is, mostly supported by migrants from Southern Italy.

During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Inter was the more successful club, being World Champions twice in the sixties. However in recent times Silvio Berlusconi's Milan has been the more dominant team. This rivalry has been compounded by AC Milan acquiring a few Inter players in recent years with mixed results. Milan paid Inter a relatively cheap price for players such as Clarence Seedorf and Andrea Pirlo, whom it managed to turn into world-class performers. However, in the summer of 2005 Milan snatched from Inter then world-class Italian international Christian Vieri, who had failed to find success at Inter. This season, Inter have claimed the bragging rights, winning both competitive fixtures between the two; 4-3 and 2-1.

Another Inter rival, Juventus, were the only other club to have never been relegated, which changed with the match-fixing scandal of 2006 as Juve were relegated to Serie B. Matches with Juventus are generally referred to by the Italian press as Derby d'Italia (The great Italian derby) because of the fact that, before 2006, this was the only fixture that appeared in every Serie A season.


Current squad

As of July 27, 2007[3] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK Italy ITA Francesco Toldo
2 DF Colombia COL Iván Córdoba (Vice captain 1)
4 DF Argentina ARG Javier Zanetti (captain)
5 MF Serbia SRB Dejan Stanković
6 DF Brazil BRA Maxwell
7 MF Portugal POR Luís Figo
8 FW Sweden SWE Zlatan Ibrahimović
9 FW Argentina ARG Julio Cruz
10 FW Brazil BRA Adriano (Vice captain 4)
11 MF Chile CHI Luis Jiménez (on loan from Ternana)
12 GK Brazil BRA Júlio César
13 DF Brazil BRA Maicon
14 MF France FRA Patrick Vieira
15 MF France FRA Olivier Dacourt
No. Pos. Nation Player
16 DF Argentina ARG Nicolás Burdisso
17 DF Italy ITA Francesco Coco
18 FW Argentina ARG Hernán Crespo (on loan from Chelsea)
19 MF Argentina ARG Esteban Cambiasso
20 FW Uruguay URU Álvaro Recoba (Vice captain 2)
21 MF Argentina ARG Santiago Solari
22 GK Italy ITA Paolo Orlandoni
23 DF Italy ITA Marco Materazzi (Vice captain 3)
24 DF Colombia COL Nelson Rivas
25 DF Argentina ARG Walter Samuel
26 DF Romania ROU Cristian Chivu
29 FW Honduras HON David Suazo
31 MF Brazil BRA Cesar

Confirmed future transfers 2007-2008

In

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
31 MF Brazil BRA Cesar (loan return from Livorno)
17 DF Italy ITA Francesco Coco (loan return from Torino)
— MF Tunisia TUN Tijani Belaid (loan return from PSV Eindhoven)
18 FW Argentina ARG Hernán Crespo (loan bid renewed with Chelsea)
29 FW Honduras HON David Suazo (from Cagliari)
11 MF Chile CHI Antonio Luis Jiménez (on loan from Ternana)
24 DF Colombia COL Nelson Rivas (from River Plate)
26 DF Romania ROU Cristian Chivu (from AS Roma)
Out

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
11 DF Italy ITA Fabio Grosso (to Lyon)
34 MF Ivory Coast CIV Abdoulaye Diarra (to Cagliari)
45 MF Cameroon CMR Daniel Maa Boumsong (to Treviso)
51 DF Italy ITA Leonardo Bonucci (to Treviso)
52 MF Tunisia TUN Tijani Belaid (on loan to SK Slavia Praha)
79 GK Uruguay URU Fabián Carini (to Real Murcia)
91 MF Argentina ARG Mariano González (loan return to Palermo)
99 FW Greece GRE Lampros Choutos (contract expired)
— FW Italy ITA Robert Acquafresca (co-ownership with Cagliari)
— FW Romania ROU Ianis Zicu (to FC Dinamo Bucureşti)
— MF Chile CHI David Pizarro (co-ownership resolved in favour of AS Roma)
77 DF Italy ITA Marco Andreolli (co-ownership with A.S. Roma)

Non-playing staff

Retired numbers

Main article: retired numbers

Noted players

For a more detailed list, see List of F.C. Internazionale Milano players.
For a list of all former and current Inter players with a Wikipedia article, see Category:Internazionale players.

The following list features only:

  1. Individual club record owners
  2. Individual prize winners in a domestic, continental or worldwide basis, and FIFA World Cup winners during their stay at the club
  3. Players with at least 160 first team appearances with the club
  4. Players who scored at least 45 goals for the club

Players in italics are currently part of the first team squad. The flags refer to the international team(s) represented by each player.

Club presidents

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