Weight of the past: Happy birthday Inter

Date: 9th March 2015 at 1:28pm
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On the day of their founding, March 9, 1908 and not a day over 107, the Nerazzurri look set to carry on the dream of their founders.

Inter_1908-09

Americus.

The name bestowed upon the unexplored New World that would broaden Europe’s horizons when Amerigo Vespucci travelled in search of a passage to East Asia in 1501.

The landmass, which was unknown to Vespucci at the time, would carry his name and signalled The Old Continent’s foray into unexplored lands and set the stage for the world as we know it today.

Who knew that 454 years to the day of the birth of the explorer from Florence, another monumental event would once again broaden horizons, though this adventure would begin within the confines of the Ristorante Orologio in Milan.

Inter 1908

On that night of March 9, 1908 a group of 44 dissenters would break away from the Milan Cricket and Football Club and change the landscape of football within the city, but also within the entire peninsula.

The result?

The creation of the Foot-Ball Club Internazionale, known today as Football Club Internazionale Milano, a club whose mandate would be to open the doors to foreigners and have them play alongside Italians on the pitch.

Calling themselves “brothers of the world”, the newly formed club would achieve instant success winning it’s first title in 1910, before waiting 10 years to claim their next title in 1920.

Despite several successes over various competitions and spread out over the next few decades, it would not be until the arrival of a foreigner on the Inter bench in the shape of Helenio Herrera that the Nerazzurri would achieve widespread notoriety in the footballing world.

Helenio Herrera inter

The Grande Inter of the 1960’s would transform European football, as Il Mago and his Catenaccio style of play would secure three Scudetti, two European Cups and two Intercontinental crowns over the course of his eight-year run at the club.

Those heights would only be matched by Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho, whose legendary status amongst Inter folklore was cemented on May 22, 2010 when he brought the UEFA Champions League trophy back to the Nerazzurri for the first time in 45 years while securing an unprecedented treble.

What was initially hoped to be a launching pad for sustained European success, like the 1960’s turned out to be short lived, with Mourinho leaving for Real Madrid and Inter rifling through a string of unsuccessful coach hirings that left the club mired in struggles that mirrored those of the late 1990’s.

Jose Mourinho Inter

Today, the club stands in uncharted waters.

A far cry from the rampant eater of worlds of five years ago, but with reason to be optimistic that a bright future is within distance.

Current owner and Indonesian businessman Erick Thohir has brought along with him foreign investment, a continuation of the club’s initial creed to open their doors to those outside of Italy.

Erick Thohir Inter

With the likes of Xherdan Shaqiri, Mauro Icardi and Mateo Kovacic spearheading a new business model of financial responsibility, while investing in talented youngsters, the hope is that Thohir’s approach will prove more sustainable than the lavish spending of previous owner Massimo Moratti.

Factor in the growing reports that Inter are set to once again split from AC Milan by making the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza their own, one could argue that the Nerazzurri have never been more in line with the ideals that were laid out in the Ristorante Orologio all those years ago.

New Inter Logo 2014

With the club headed into uncharted territories much like Vespucci so famously did all those years ago, the hope and belief of all Inter fans is that this voyage will prove to be another glorious chapter to what has been a successful 107 year journey.

Happy Birthday Inter.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5Zq_NwVx00&t=13[/youtube]

 

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