Football
Club Internazionale Milano (commonly, but incorrectly, known as
Inter Milan) is an Italian football club, playing in the Serie A
(first division).
The club was founded on 9 March 1908 following a split from the
Milan Cricket and Football Club, now known as AC Milan. A group
of Italians and Swiss were unhappy about the domination of
Italians in AC Milan 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 championship in 1910 and its second
in 1920. During the turbulent war periods, Internazionale was
forced to change its name to Ambrosiana-Inter in order to
accommodate Benito Mussolini's hardline regime. However, Inter
was still used to winning ways and captured its third league
championship in the new Italian first division in 1930.
Following that, a fourth league title was won in 1938, Inter's
first Coppa Italia (Italian Cup) was won in 1940 and a fifth
league championship followed in 1940. From 1942 onwards, the
name Ambrosiana-Inter was dropped in favor of the original
Internazionale Milano.
Following the post-war period, 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. During this magnificent period,
the club won 3 league championships in 1963, 1965 & 1966. The
most famous moments during this decade also include Inter's 2
back-to-back European Cup wins. In 1963, Inter won the first of
those European Cups, playing against the famous Spanish club
Real Madrid. The next season, playing in their own stadium, the
San Siro, Inter won their second European Cup against Portuguese
outfit Benfica.
Following the golden 1960s, Inter managed to win their 11th
league title in 1971 and their 12th in 1980. During the years of
the 1970s & 1980s, Inter also added to their Coppa Italia tally,
winning their second and third cups in 1978 and 1982
respectively. Inter won their last league championship in 1989,
bringing their total tally of scudetti (Italian badges) to 13.
They sit third in the all-time list of most wins of the league
championship, behind Juventus (27) and AC Milan (17).
FC Internazionale has also won the UEFA Cup on 3 occasions. The
first was in the 1990/1991 season in a two-legged match with AS
Roma. In 1993/1994, Inter did it again, this time against
Austrian side Casino Salzburg. In a record third UEFA Cup
victory, Inter beat SS Lazio in a one-match final played in the
Parc des Princes, Paris.
The stadium which Inter plays in is called Stadio Giuseppe
Meazza, San Siro. It was previously simply known as San Siro,
but a new name was adoped following the renovation of the
stadium for the 1990 World Cup that was held in Italy. Giuseppe
Meazza was a famous player for FC Internazionale in the 1930s
and also played for AC Milan for a brief period of time. As a
player, he won 2 World Cups for Italy (in 1934 and 1938) and,
alongside Giovanni Ferrari, remains one of only two Italian
players to have ever won the World Cup on 2 occasions. As a
result, he is revered amongst the Interisti (Inter fans) and was
honored by having one of the most famous football stadiums in
the world named after him. The stadium seats 85,700 and plays
host to both FC Internazionale andMilan.
FC Internazionale holds a proud record of never having been
relegated to the Serie B (2nd division) in its entire existence.
The fans hold this in high regard as Inter are only one of two
clubs (the other being Juventus) that have been ever-present in
the Serie A. But Juventus were nominally relegated in 1911 and
1913 but remained at the first level in Piemonte Regional League
in 1911, and in the Lombardia Regional League in the 1913; in
addition, they didn't finish the championship in 1908.
Famous players in its long and illustrious past include Corrado
Aebi, Virgilio Fossati, Luigi Cevenini, Pino Fossati, Giuseppe
Meazza, Giovanni Ferrari, Stefano Nyers, Naka Skoglund, Faas
Wilkes, Annibale Frossi, Benito Lorenzi, Gino Armano, Lorenzo
Buffon, Sandro Mazzola, Giacinto Facchetti, Angelo Domenghini,
Armando Picchi, Aristide Guarneri, Tarcisio Burgnich, Roberto
Boninsegna, Luis Suarez, Giorgio Ghezzi, Alessandro Altobelli,
Evaristo Beccalossi, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Giuseppe Baresi,
Giuseppe Bergomi, Walter Zenga, Lothar Matthäus, Roberto Baggio,
Ronaldo, Dennis Bergkamp, Matthias Sammer, Marco Tardelli,
Angelo Peruzzi, Francesco Toldo, Ramon Diaz, Christian Vieri,
Javier Zanetti, Emre Belözoglu, Adriano Leite Ribeiro, Alvaro
Recoba, Obafemi Martins, Edgar Davids, Juan Sebastian Veron,
Kily Gonzales, Antonio Valentin Angelillo, Attilio Demaria,
Humberto Maschio, Daniel Passarella, Hernan Crespo, Jair,
Roberto Carlos, Ernesto Mascheroni, Hector Scarone, Paul Ince,
Clarence Seedorf, Liam Brady.
The current honorary president of Inter is Massimo Moratti. His
father, Angelo Moratti was the president of Inter during the
golden era of the 1960s. Massimo, trying to emulate his father's
great success, has spent a great deal of money to bring some of
the world's best players to the club.
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