BINH DUONG
No one could have imagined that just two years ago, Inter Milan, who were struggling, would now be in the Champions League final.
Striker Martinez (right) scored the winning goal for Inter against AC Milan on May 16. Photo: CNN
"My first thought right now is that when I was appointed coach, the Inter board asked me to lead the team to the knockout stage for the first time in 11 years," coach Simone Inzaghi shared after helping Inter defeat AC Milan in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final on May 16.
By defeating AC Milan 3-0 on aggregate over two legs to take Inter to the final, coach Inzaghi achieved what his predecessors Antonio Conte and Luciano Spalletti could not. Remarkably, Inzaghi accomplished this feat despite having fewer star players. In May 2021, club president Steven Zhang went to the training ground to ask players to reduce or postpone their salaries to help the team overcome the financial damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation then worsened. Mr. Zhang spent months searching for emergency loans, and even after receiving a €292 million injection from global asset management company Oaktree Capital Management, Inter still had to sell players.
Achraf Hakimi and Romelu Lukaku joined PSG and Chelsea respectively, not long after Inzaghi became Inter's coach in July 2021. Inter also suffered a shock when midfielder Christian Eriksen collapsed while playing for Denmark at EURO 2021. Eriksen later recovered and returned to the field with a defibrillator. However, Italian law prohibits players with implanted defibrillators from competing in professional sports , including Serie A, so Inter were forced to terminate Eriksen's contract. In the summer of 2022, the Italian coach continued to part ways with striker Ivan Perisic, who joined Tottenham, and also missed out on signing Paulo Dybala and Gleison Bremer.
Inter, during the 2019-2021 period under Conte, overspent, breaking the club's transfer record twice (signing Nicolo Barella and Lukaku). Coach Inzaghi believes that winning the Serie A title in the 2020-2021 season created financial problems for Inter.
However, according to calculations, reaching the final of Europe's top club competition has already earned Inter over 100 million Euros from prize money and television rights. Furthermore, Inter could increase their income even more if they finish in the top four of Serie A this season. If they finish in third place, which they currently hold, the Nerazzurri will earn nearly 22 million Euros. The prize money for second and fourth place would be 27 million Euros and 17 million Euros respectively. These revenues would give Inter the confidence to offer contract extensions to key players such as Samir Handanovic, Edin Dzeko, Stefan de Vrij, and possibly even continue loaning Lukaku from Chelsea.
Inter's reaching the final is the result of a resilient collective effort. In Coach Inzaghi's squad, there isn't one particularly outstanding player. Their top scorer in the Champions League, Dzeko, has only 4 goals, while Lautaro Martinez, Lukaku, and Barella each have 3 goals. Inter's total goals so far are 19, averaging just 1.6 goals per game.
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