World Soccer: Club Focus

Club Focus – Inter Milan

Club Statistics
City (Population): Milan (1,303,670)
Founded: 1908
President: Massimo Moratti
Coach: Roberto Mancini
Club Address: Via Durini, 24 20122 Milan
(Tel 0039-021-77151/Fax 781514)
Website: www.inter.it
Stadium: Giuseppe Meazza
Address: Via Piccolomini 5, 20151 Milan
Capacity: 83,679; Average Attendance 2006-07: 48,284
Pitch dimensions: 105m x 68m
Training Ground: Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti,
La Pinetina, Appiano Gentile
Most capped Italian: Giacinto Facchetti - 94
Transfer record paid: Christian Vieri - £32 million from Lazio (1999)
Transfer record recieved: Luis Ronaldo - £28 million to Real Madrid (2002)
Club nicknames: Nerazzurri (the Black-blues); La Beneamata (the Cherished); Biscione (the Big Grass Snake)
Team strip Home: Black and blue striped jersey, white shorts and blue.black hoped socks
Away: White jersey with red cross, dark blue shorts and socks
Shirt sponsor: Pirelli
Kit manufacturer: Nike

Serie A Records
P 2470 W 1207 D 708 L 555 F 4133 A 2547 (*)
Debut season: 1929-30
Seasons: 75
Most appearances: Giuseppe Bergomi - 519
All-time top sorer: Giuseppe Meazza - 197
Season's top scorer: Antonio Valentin Angelillo – 33 (1958-59)
Most/Least points: 97 (2006-07) / 26 (1941-42)
Biggest home win: 9-0 v Casale (1933-34)
Biggest home defeat: 0-6 v AC Milan (2000-01)
Biggest away win: 6-0 v Udinese (1960-61) & Bologna (1988-89)
Biggest away defeat: 1-9 v Juventus (1960-61)
Most/Least wins: 30 (2006-07) / 7 (1941-42)
Most/Least defeats: 19 (1947-48) / 1 (2006-07)
Most/Least goals: 107 (1950-51) / 26 (1974-75)
Most/Least conceded: 60 (1947-48/49-50) / 17 (1986-87)

Inter Milan Squad 2007-08
12 Julio Cesar (G) DOB: 03.09.79
22 Paolo Orlandoni (G) DOB: 12.08.72
1 Francesco Toldo (G) DOB: 02.12.71
16 Nicolas Burdisso (D) DOB: 12.04.81
26 Cristian Chivu (D) DOB: 2610.80
2 Ivan Cordoba (D) DOB: 11.08.76
13 Douglas Maicon (D) DOB: 26.07.81
23 Marco Materazzi (D) DOB: 19.08.73
6 Maxwell (D) DOB: 27.08.81
24 Nelson Rivas (D) DOB: 25.03.83
25 Walter Samuel (D) DOB: 23.03.78
47 Francesco Bolzoni (M) DOB: 07.05.89
19 Esteban Cambiasso (M) DOB: 18.08.80
31 Aparecido Cesar (M) DOB: 24.10.74
15 Olivier Dacourt (M) DOB: 25.09.74
7 Luis Figo (M) DOB 04.11.72
57 Attila Filkor (M) DOB: 12.07.88
11 Luis Jimenez (M) DOB: 17.06.84
50 Ibrahim Maaroufi (M) DOB: 18.01.89
21 Santiago Solari (M) DOB: 07.10.76
5 Dejan Stankovic (M) DOB: 11.09.78
14 Patrick Vieira (M) DOB: 23.06.76
4 Javier Zanetti (M) DOB: 10.08.73
10 Leite Adriano (F) DOB: 17.02.82
58 Jonathan Biabiany (F) DOB: 28.04.88
18 Hernan Crespo (F) DOB: 05.07.75
9 Julio Cruz (F) DOB: 10.10.74
8 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (F) DOB: 03.10.81
20 Alvaro Recoba (F) DOB: 17.03.76
- Sebastian Ribas (F) DOB: 11.03.88
61 Goran Slavkovski (F) DOB: 08.04.89
29 David Suazo (F) DOB: 05.11.79

History
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 shortened to Inter Milan in English-speaking countries. Internazionale have 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. Inter are the only team in Italy to have competed in the top tier throughout the club's history. The club wears blue and black stripes, which gives the origin of their Nerazzurri nickname. Inter enjoy one of the biggest fan bases in Italy, along with its two main 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 are member of the G-14 organisation of leading European football clubs. The club was founded on March 9, 1908 as Internazionale FBC Milano, following a "schism" from the Milan Cricket and Football Club. 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. In 1928, during the Fascist era, the club was forced to merge with the Milanese Unione Sportiva and was renamed Ambrosiana SS Milano two years later it was altered to AS Ambrosiana Milano. They wore white shirts around this time with a red cross emblazoned on it. This shirt design was inspired by the flag and coat of arms of the city of Milan (which is derived from the flag of the patron saint of Milan, St. Ambrose and dates back to the 4th century AD). By 1933 the name was changed again, this time to AS Ambrosiana Inter Milano. 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. After the end of World War II, the club re-emmerged under a name close to their original one; Internazionale FC Milano, they have kept this ever since.

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. 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. Inter's fortunes started to improve in the 1990s. Inter achieved 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.[citation needed] 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 one goal 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 met with more disappointment. Being tied 1-1 with AC Milan, only for AC Milan to advance on the away goals rule.

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 were awarded the 2005-06 Serie A championship as they were the highest placed side 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 a 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 record of 15 matches held by both 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 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, on merit alone, 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. Inter president Massimo Moratti claimed that this contractual agreement was made "some time ago".

Inter has never been relegated from the Italian 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 Juventus' relegation to Serie B for the 2006-07 season following the "Calciopoli" scandal Inter remain the only Italian club that holds this honour, 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 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. Due to Inter's failure to win major silverware during his premiership, there was frequent criticism of Moratti by Interista.

Inter has several principal rivalries, most obviously arch-rivals AC Milan. The rivalry is especially heated due to the fact that 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.

2007-2008 Season
Who can stop Inter this season in Serie A?, good question. After racking up a record total of 97 points last season and have further strengthened the squad this summer, it would be a major surprise to me, if anyone can get close to them. The arrival of Cristian Chivu and the prolific David Suazo, the Nerazzurri look ever stronger this term. Another Scudetto looks highly likely for a team that has everything and have great strength in depth.
Woody's prediction: Quite simply, Inter Milan will retain the title in some style

(*) = Serie A record up to and including 2 September 2007

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Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

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