Internazionale Milano - Il Ritorno

19 years ago Massimo Moratti made his first purchase as the owner of Inter Milan. The player that arrived at the Giuseppe Meazza was a well-combed 22-year-old Argentine right-back. It was Javier Zanetti. In 1999 he took over the captaincy after the legendary Giuseppe Bergomi, becoming the first foreigner to captain a team in Serie A.

At the end of last season, after 19 years at Inter, he decided that he would retire. As of his retirement the captaincy of Inter would be vacant. Former Inter manager Walter Mazzarri named Andrea Ranocchia as team captain and Yutu Nagatomo as his vice-captain, Luís Figo decided to stick with that decision upon his arrival. However, earlier this summer the newly appointed vice-captain Yutu Nagatomo left Milano to play for Olympique Marseille. Following this Luís Figo gave Ranocchia free hands to choose whoever he wanted as his number two.

The two top prospects for the job were believed to be Gary Medel and Nemanja Vidic, both recent arrivals in Milano. However Ranocchia chose to give the vice-captaincy to the experienced Serbian centre-back Nemanja Vidic. The former Manchester United captain is said to be delighted with the decision as he and Andrea Ranocchia get along very well and that both probably will be a part of Inter’s starting eleven.

”Instantly becoming the vice-captain of a team is not easy. I don’t know everybody in the team yet and I don’t understand the language that well. But I’m happy that I was chosen as it proves they value me as an important player.”

Great to see Vidic having an important role at the club. Keep it up

wellsy1498 - Yeah, figured he would be a bit better in-game than he's been in reality Thank you!

How did you get Luka Zahovic from Maribor? He doesn't appear in my game :s

fc2004 - Make sure you load the right country/league when starting a new save. For example you need to load the Slovenian league for him to appear.

With the Europa League playoffs coming up in about 2 weeks Inter played their final preseason friendly against Trabzonspor. The Turkish team has shown their economical muscles this summer and signed several big name players such as Óscar Cardozo, Waris Majeed and Kevin Constant.

But even though Trabzonspor’s big money signings they couldn’t match Inter. After only 4 minutes of play Mauro Icardi broke through on his own and with a powerful shot bombed it into the bottom right corner. The Turkish team got more and more frustrated as Inter controlled possession and after 17 minutes Aykut Demir caused a penalty. Mauro Icardi stepped forward to take the penalty but the shot went wide.

Federico Bonazzoli who got his chance from start was forced off the pitch after just 22 minutes. Preliminary reports suggests that he will be out for approximately 2 weeks leaving Inter with only Mauro Icardi and Pablo Osvaldo available as Rodrigo Palacio is just beginning his rehabilitation from a 3 month long knee injury.

Waris Majeed was able to score his first goal for Trabzonspor after a poor clearance from Nemanja Vidic which made it 1-1. The game went on with Inter retaining possession but failing to create any real chances. About 10 minutes into the second half Gary Medel received his second yellow card of the game after a reckless tackle leaving Inter down to 10 men.

Inter kept their defence tight and the game seemed to be ending in a draw. But Icardi wanted to make up for his penalty miss and inspired by his first goal he broke through in similar fashion and put the ball right behind Öztürk in the Trabzonspor goal ending the game 2-1.

Ever since Rafael Tolói’s arrival in Milano his fellow Brazilian Jonathan has been linked with a move taking him in the opposite direction. Today the clubs finally agreed on a €3m deal for the 28-year-old left back. São Paolo’s however couldn’t offer Jonathan a high enough wage to satisfy him. In order to close the deal Inter decided to accept Jonathan’s demands and will therefore continue to pay him a weekly wage of €20.000 for the remainder of his contract with Inter.

Jonathan came through the youth section of Cruzeiro and made his first team debut in 2005. He became a regular starter at the Mineirão and played there for 5 years making a total of 239 appearances before joining their rival team Santos in December 2010 for a fee of €2m. His stay at Santos would not be long as Inter approached them with a €5m bid in the summer of 2011.

After making the move to Inter Jonathan had a hard time breaking into the first team and only played 4 games. In January 2012 he was loaned out to Parma where he quickly established himself and helped them to a 8th place finish in Serie A. The following year he remained at Inter although he only made 8 appearances. After Inter’s disappointing 9th place that season Andrea Stamaccioni was sacked and replaced by Walter Mazzarri. Under Mazzarri’s regime Jonathan had a more frequent run place in the first team and made 31 league appearances. But with Matteo Darmian and Danilo D’Ambrosio ahead of him in the pecking order Jonathan was deemed excessive and thus put on the transfer list by Luís Figo.

What on beforehand seemed to be a favourable draw proved to be harder than expected. An overconfident Inter played carelessly against a much more disciplined opponent. The Israeli team was surprisingly strong defensively and Inter did not get many shots on target. Inter’s first and only goal came through a simple, yet effective, set piece from Hernanes where he chipped the ball to Dodô who crossed the ball to Pablo Osvaldo who was able to put the ball in the net with a great header.

But only a minute later Hapoel were able to equalise following some sloppy defending from Nemanja Vidic. John Ogu intercepted his pass and delivered a through ball to Shlmoi Arbeitman who took the opportunity he was presented with and made it 1-1 at the Giuseppe Meazza.

A spirited Dodô who had easily been Inter’s best player was forced off the pitch right before halftime with a hamstring injury. Reports are that he will be ruled out of action for at least 3 months. Inter continued to look uncomfortable and were unable to create anymore chances and thus ended the game in a disappointing draw.

As of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine all UEFA have decided that all European competitions will have to be played outside of the country. Therefore the second leg between Inter Milan and Hapoel Be’er Sheva will be played at the Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium in Cyprus.

The Russian club Rubin Kazan today announced that they’ve signed Zlatko Kuzmanovic from Inter. The deal is valued at €3.5m and will be paid over a period of 48 months. The Serb was not wanted at Inter but several teams such as West Ham, Dinamo Moscow and his former club Basel showed interest for him, however he ultimately chose Rubin Kazan.

Zdravko Kuzmanovic was born in the city of Thun in Switzerland and joined the country’s biggest club, FC Basel, at an early age. He made his debut for the senior team in 2005 and went on to make 34 appearances before joining AFC Fiorentina in January 2007. During his stay in Florence he became an integral first team player and made a grand total of 70 appearances before VfB Stuttgart made an €8m bid to sign the midfielder. His success continued at Stuttgart and several clubs were interested in signing him, amongst them Chelsea who, allegedly, had a €23m offer rejected.

The following season the Serbian midfielder had troubles with injuries and when he played he was played out of position, this damaged his relationship with the club and lead to him refusing to sign a contract extension. As his contract ran out in the summer VfB Stuttgart cashed in while they could and sold him to Inter in January 2013 for the small fee of €1.2m.

Former Inter coach Andrea Stramaccioni launched him as the new Cambiasso, however Kuzmanovic didn't really live up to that statement. In his one and a half season stay at Inter he only played a total of 28 games making no lasting impression. Following Figo’s arrival the 26-year-old midfielder was nowhere to be found during the preseason and only appeared on the bench once. With Medel, M'Vila and Krhin seemingly ahead of him in the pecking order the Serb was left with no other choice than finding a himself new club address.

Great start! Really enjoyed reading it so far

OllieGrocott - Thank you very much sir!

For the second leg of the Europa League playoffs it was Hapoel Be’er Sheva who had the advantage following the 1-1 draw at Giuseppe Meazza. The game was set to be played in Cyprus at the Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium as the Israel-Palestine-conflict prevented it from being played at Hapoel’s home arena Vasermil.

With Hapoel’s already through on the away-goal rule they lined up in a defensive 4-2-3-1 where their focus was on maintaining their lead. Throughout the entire first half they were able to prevent Inter from having a single shot on target. However after an inspiring speech from Nemanja Vidic in halftime Inter forced their way through the Hapoel defense and Mauro Icardi was able to score on a volley following a shot to the post from Pablo Osvaldo.

30 minutes into the second half Matteo Kovacic fired a shot from 35 yards that Hapoel goalkeeper Austin Ejide parried but the ball rebounded to a wide open Mauro Icardi who, again, put the ball in the net increasing their lead to 0-2. Barely minutes later Hapoel was able to reduce to 1-2 after a brilliant free kick from Gal Arel. But Inter tightened up their defense and were able to maintain the result.

The playoff ended with an aggregate result of 2-3 awarding Inter with a place in the group stage of the Europa League. The other Italian team in the playoff, Torino, were knocked out by the Cypriot team AEL Limassol after losing at home with 0-1 followed by a 0-0 draw away.

In the dying hours of the transfer window Inter approached Aston Villa with a loan offer for their Czech target-man Libor Kozák who they had put up for loan. The 25-year-old striker will join Inter for the season on loan, Inter will pay for half of his €25.000 weekly salary as well as a €525.000 loan fee. The deal is believed to include an option to buy him for a fee of €4.5m.

Libor Kozák started his career at his local club FC Opava in the Czech Republic. He made his senior debut in 2006 and played a total of 41 appearances before Lazio came calling. In July 2008 he made a €1.2m move to the Italian club but did not make his debut until almost a year later when he came on as a late substitute against none other than Internazionale. With the competition from Miroslav Klose and Tommaso Rocchi Kozák never really managed to break into the first team at Lazio and only made 58 appearances during his 5 year stay.

Kozák was bought by Aston Villa for €5.5m in 2013 after having a successful season with Lazio scoring an astonishing 10 goals in the Europa League. However after just 14 appearances for his new club he unfortunately broke his leg during a training session which ruled him out for the rest of the season. Following his injury Aston Villa doubted his abilities and told him to seek a new club. Inter, with Rodrigo Palacio ruled out for at least a couple of weeks, saw Kozák as a cheap solution who would add the necessary depth to the squad in Palacio’s absence.

”I am very happy to be back in Italy again, I had a tough year in England and I wanted a fresh start after my injury. Lazio were interested of re-signing me but a concrete offer never came and when my agent talked to Inter’s sport director Piero Ausilio he convinced me that Inter would be the right move for me.”

With the transfer window slammed shut Inter Milan’s official squad list has been released. The list contains some surprising names such as the youngsters Melkamu Taufer and Giacomo Sciacca who were not believed to be included. Other than them there are some new renown players in the squad for this season, with the most notable being the Southampton-loanee Pablo Osvaldo and the former Manchester United-captain Nemanja Vidic

The team is without a doubt one of the stronger in Italy and anything but a place in the Champions League would be seen as a failure by the fans. However the Milano-based paper La Gazzetta dello Sport, who is usually pro-Inter, has predicted them with a 5th place finish with Juventus, Roma, Milan and Napoli placed ahead of them. Although after a successful debut against Napoli Luís Figo was certain that he would prove the critics wrong.

”Our goals? To win the league. Managing a great team like Inter Milan leaves you with no other option than aiming for the title. Even though I’m new to being a manager I have over a decade of experience from playing, I know I’m capable of bringing the team back to the top of Europe where we belong.”

Fantastic story so far