A good friend, the Ajax Amsterdam Team manager gives his always interesting views about Ranieri, Bergkamp, Herrera, Bersellini, Coutinho and so on. And explains his love for Inter, well known by Dutch readers after the beautiful “Mijn Inter” (My Inter), a book published in 2009 which deserves to be translated in more languages.
David, when did you start supporting Nerazzurri?
My 'love affair' with Inter began when you as a kid are not supposed to have love affairs. I was only 8, 9 years old when Inter were Champions of Europe and won the Intercontinental Cup twice. Football in Holland was far away from success and the foreign teams (like Real Madrid, Benfica, Milan) were the big examples. When playing football in the street with all the boys of the neighborhood, we wore the names of Gento, Puskas, Di Stefano, Eusebio or Rivera. And, with the success of Inter, of course also of Mazzola, Facchetti, Suarez, Corso and so on. Inter were really very big, it was also the colors, I think, that made a huge impact. Thinking back, I am sure that also the romantic aspect played a part in falling in love, as should be with love affairs. Inter were far away, in a far exotic country of sunshine where, did we imagined and read (if television had entered our houses, it did little to inform like it does nowadays) football was at its best, untouchable. Hungry for information we read every bit of 'Inter' and all kind of international football we could get to. You could use your imagination, you could dream.
A different era. Now we have dedicated Tv channels providing extensive coverage of many meaningless friendly games… Yes. Nowadays it’s more difficult for boys of that age, as they receive so much information, they can see so many matches, there is no space to imagine and to dream anymore. What helped as well, was that when playing our street football, there were two elder boys, 5 years older than the average. That gave them standard, respect, they were examples, our heroes. And they knew much more than us and passed all information. A few years later they went to Italy to see Inter play and came back with loads of stories. Football in Italy was light years away and ahead, it seemed, of our Dutch football world. Heaven was there. They had photo's, magazines, even filmed (Super 8) at the training ground of Inter at San Pellegrino. After their holidays those two boys invited us at their small boys-rooms to show the film they shot and other films of big Italian matches they had bought. These were real mythical sessions. We could touch the stars! When playing on the street, I was 'Mazzola'. It sounded so good and wasn't he Inter’s top striker?
During the mid-60s even Dutch clubs like Ajax and Feyenoord began to emerge…
Not so long after Inter triumphs, Dutch football started to show its potential. We, living in Amsterdam, were at first not aware of the great quality that was growing in our own garden. But when Ajax beat Liverpool in 1966 and then reached the unreachable (the European Cup final in 1969) we knew that something special happened in our Amsterdam! And of course we went to Ajax' home matches, saw a certain Johan Cruijff sparkle on the field. Still I never quit Inter. I was proud of that team. I 'fought' battles over catenaccio, defended the image of my team. And I cultivated my knowledge, even learned Italian when at school I normally was lazy and football-crazy. I wanted to know everything and, like the elder boys before, started to see Inter play whenever they played more or less near Holland. I also went on holiday to Italy and visited the Inter headquarters at the Via Dante and came back, like my friends did years before, with loads of booklets, photo's and magazines. I must say, it did not only go for Inter. We were Italian football-mad and supported every Italian team and when there was an occasion, we went to see any Italian team, or the National team, play. But Inter was always number one, no matter if they did well or bad. All my childhood friends are still Inter fans, although some of them switched to Juventus: traitors! And we still come together every now and then, nearly fifty years later, as when Inter played Bayern two years ago in the Champions League Final. What happiness we had when Milito scored the goals and Zanetti took the Cup. How we, old boys, celebrated like young kids!
But that wasn’t the first time you saw Inter playing a Champions’ Cup final…
No, I saw Ajax-Inter in 1972. I was crazy, pazzo, in the eyes of others. I was a fairly good player myself. At 17 I was taken by Ajax to play in the junior side. And in 1972 I was on my way to the Primavera and a contract as a professional football player of Ajax, when Ajax played Inter in the Champions’ Cup final. I bought my tickets through a very complicated way with the Inter Club in Milano, just to be sure to be with the Inter fans. Then I went, with my neighborhood fans, by train to Rotterdam, dressed up in that beautiful suggestive black and blue colors, armed with a huge black and blue banner on which my mother had stitched in white letters: I N T E R.
Wonderful memories. Can you single out a player or a coach in Inter history that summarize better than others Inter DNA?
Picking one single person to summarize Inter’s DNA is nearly impossible. The first names that pop up in the mind are the names of Mazzola, my childhood hero, Facchetti of course, Corso, captain Picchi. But also Boninsegna and Bergomi and Zenga. In actual times you should speak of Zanetti. But the most influent and marking person is, I think, Helenio Herrera. He did not invent catenaccio but he sublimed the system and put a certain character to the team that was unknown before and after (maybe Mourinho brought back something of that power). Herrera was a symbol for the greatness, the willpower, the psychological accents. He was also a visionary an avant-garde person with that little flick of madness that belongs to genius. I visited the man in Venezia, two years before he passed away. At his old age he discussed matters, detail of Inter as if he was still the trainer in the dressing room. Getting exited, angry, happy. Jumping up from his chair, stepping around in his room, moving little magnets on a football blackboard to show how the players should be positioned. Furious over mistakes made by referees against his Inter. What a character!
So he will be your first pick as Inter coach. Can you please complete the podium and explain the choices.
So, as I said, Herrera on top because he turn Inter into a myth, a world power, respected forever. Then, Jose Mourinho. Another man possessed by football, by winning, by outwitting opponents and a master in dealing with 'The Dressing Room". A great character, like Herrera but a modern one. Intelligent and brave. Third. Eugenio Bersellini. Just because one of the most beautiful performances I experienced with Inter was with him on the bench. It was Borussia Mönchengladbach Inter, 1-1, in 1979. Inter played so wonderfully in rhythm and balance. A team with a lot of players from their academy and also Altobelli, Beccalossi. But it was the ensemble that did it, it was like a mix of jazz and rhythm and blues. I was SO in love with that team, from warm-up until the last whistle, it was like a powerful muscular but also elegant ballet. A year later I was at Appiano Gentile. Visiting Inter at training session. I came to speak with Bersellini and I reminded him of that Borussia’s game. The man got emotional. He rated that match too as one of the all-time best he managed. Then we shared the beauty and the perfectness of that game again, there in his little office at the training ground.
From coaches to players. Which is your favourite Inter?
The foundation of my love: SartiBurgnichFacchettiBedinTagninGuarneriPicchiJairDomenghiniMazzolaSuarezCorso... The sheer dreamteam. But I also loved the team of the late 70s-early 80s, with young Bergomi, Zenga, Ferri, Baresi, Bini, Sabato, Mandorlini, Matteoli, Marini Altobelli, Beccalossi, Muraro. It had so much ´Italianismo´ in it. I could embrace that team.
The most disappointing players you remember with an Inter shirt.
As a honest Team manager I should not mention disappointing players. Only joking. Of course there are many who were presented as stars and as potential men who would help Inter to another title but failed or, here is again the Team manager speaking, were not in the right circumstances to do what was expected from them.
Some names…
I remember Anastasi came to Inter in a deal with Juventus who took Boninsegna from us. Anastasi, a great intuitive player, friend of Mazzola, I heard. But at Inter no luck, not a glimpse of his quality. He suffered too, of course, that at Juventus our Boninsegna did the right things, man that hurt! Many players were overrated, as they were never of the class Inter really needed or they lacked the right mentality. When I think of Pancev, Ince, Sukur, Gresko. But for me, personally, the impossibility for Dennis Bergkamp to express his later estimated world class football in the loved black and blue shirt was a great disappointment. It really had to do with Inter too, and not as is still claimed at Inter, with his lack of class. I think Dennis was not the type of player Inter needed, character wise. It still hurts me, because I was so positive and happy that Dennis Bergkamp went from Ajax to Inter. I expected so much, like most later disillusioned Inter fans.
The most amazing ones?
Walter Zenga. What a character! What a special, sometimes crazy, personality. I got to know him when he was still a substitute goalkeeper. He was telling stories like a born story-teller and his ambition was mountain high. It was in 1982 when we first met. Bordon was Inter’s number 1. His deputy was Zenga, just come back from Sambenedettese, after some years on loan. It was near Alkmaar, a day before the Cup Winners Cup match AZ Alkmaar-Inter. I was at their hotel as a fake-journalist, covering my Inter heart, finding an alibi to be there. I talked with Collovati, it was lively, we had fun talking. A group formed around us, with Marini, Bergomi, Muraro and some more. Zenga was quiet at first, then, when most of the others had gone to bed, he 'exploded'. Told me the story of life, his incredible hunger for success, claiming that next year he would be the first goalkeeper. He told me about his love for Inter, the work he did at their administration office as he was good for nothing else then football, about his teachers on the field. And one year later he wore Inter’s number one jersey. Coming out of the tunnel at San Siro, raising his fist at the stands where the Boys are, his fellow supporters up there, he on the pitch! We have always kept in touch. The man may have his darker sides, he may make mistakes but I cannot help liking him in everything he is. So much Inter: un po’ pazzo (a little crazy).
You are a true Inter historian, so it’s hard to find someone more entitled to name Inter all-time best XI.
Another question impossible to answer. I already named the ‘63-‘64-’65 team. Is it possible to take some of them out? They, as a unit, are the Untouchable Team, extraordinary. Still I give it a try with a team that is composed of players not being part of that Grande Inter. A selection that is not only based on technical skill and quality but mostly on sentiment: Zenga; Bergomi, Brehme, Sabato, Collovati, Passarella, Zanetti, Berti, Altobelli, Matteoli, Boninsegna.
Present days. After a dreadful start, Inter are still far from the top in serie A but they have just won their seventh consecutive game. How do you rate Ranieri’s work so far?
Ranieri does his best. In a very difficult situation where a big part of the team is mentally and physically over the top, although at some moments they may show their real class. It is a transition time and courage and intelligence is needed to make the step to another generation, another period, possible without loss. History shows that this is very hard. Ranieri may save the savable, he has experience and a certain wisdom. Luck is needed as much as bad luck struck Inter also in the first part of the season. But you have to be realistic. The golden Inter of the recent years cannot proceed with the same players, this is a iron law in football. If you do not change in time, with all the deep respect for any player, you are bound to lose track. Hope and faith keep us Inter fans alive and we are happy to be able to look back at the past golden years, after we suffered for so long...
One for the future. Number ten spot: Coutinho, Alvarez or Sneijder?
I have a great weak spot for Coutinho, and not because he physically looks a little like me in my younger years. He has intelligence, courage, initiative, quick eyes, willpower and great feet. If he gets just a little stronger (not too much, otherwise it will make him lose something of his fantasy), he will be an ideal modern number 10.
Gianni Serra is an Italian journalist. He currently writes for 
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