Moratti, 80 years of Champions. “Thank you Inter, it’s the best gift”

Milan, 8 May 2025 – "I was twenty years old the night of Inter-Liverpool 3-0, in 1965. I was sixty-five and I was the president when we eliminated Messi's Barça in 2010. But I had to reach eighty to experience the incredible emotion of the other night..." Massimo Moratti, simply, it is theInter. He stopped being its owner, he will never stop being its fan. "The Beneamata gave me an early birthday present, I celebrate on the 16th but ideally I have already blown out the candles with Marotta and Zanetti – jokes the former president –. Even though I risked a heart attack, I imagine like all Inter lovers. It was an unspeakable suffering, but it was also an act of justice".

Translated?

"Adding together the first and second legs, Inter had one thing more: they remained lucid even when everything seemed over. They always believed, even 3-2 down at San Siro, in that crazy ending".

Did you expect such a feat after seeing the Scudetto slip away towards Naples?

"It's quicker for me to tell you that we have seen and experienced something unprecedented."

In what sense?

"Well, a double Champions League semi-final that ends 7-6 on aggregate, without going to penalties! It's something sensational, enormous."

Pep Guardiola says that matches like this make football immortal.

"Of course, he is absolutely right, regardless of the joy of those who win and the suffering of those who lose. Inter and Barcelona have shown the sublime side of football, which mixes generations by breaking down barriers. Take those two...".

Who are those two?

"Acerbi and Yamal! The first could be the father of the second, I think there are twenty years of difference between them. And yet they challenge each other on the same pitch, chasing the same dream. I find this wonderful. And while I'm at it I'll add that Acerbi is the symbol of this Inter. How do they say today? He is the perfect testimonial".

When she was president, what would she have done to buy someone like Yamal?

"I would have bought Acerbi too! But I answer you: for Lamine, if I could, I would have done anything and more. This kid, simply put, is football as we imagine it as children, he is imagination in power. He manages to do everything with extraordinary ease. If his health holds up, he will have an epic career".

They already compare him to Pelé, Maradona, Messi.

"They do well, even if he starts from a different position on the pitch. But overall Lamine is that player that even the opposing fans love, because, I repeat, you watch him and you get emotional." Let's go back to Inter: Inzaghi, like the Herrera of his youth, are the only Nerazzurri coaches to have gained access to at least two Champions League finals. "Can I make a joke?"

Also two.

"Inzaghi is a phenomenon and then we talk about it, but the Wizard HH has won two finals, Simone not yet".

This is also true.

"Eh, but jokes aside, I didn't think Simone was that good. Inzaghi is a coach who never stops studying, learning. He's grown a lot. Do you know what I appreciate most about the coach?"

We feel.

"He prepares the matches better than anyone. And he also quickly understood that there is a huge difference between the Champions League and the championship, but he always manages to keep the group on their toes. Then I realize that a fan wants to win, but if you see your team still fighting for the championship and in the final in Munich after eliminating Bayern and Barcelona, ​​how can you not be grateful to those who train and direct them?"

Right, but he still hasn't told me what he chooses between the 3-0 against Liverpool sixty years ago and the 4-3 the other night, passing through Mourinho's Treble.

"Emotions are like children, you don't have preferences. In 1965 I was two years older than Yamal, I remember Facchetti's third goal, a perfect counterattack, it was a different kind of football but my father's Inter embodied the spirit of the time, it was the Italy of the economic miracle. In 2010 I fulfilled my dreams of being a patron. Now I consume things as a simple enthusiast, I think about the final, I wonder how the idols of 2025 are doing, Sommer and Lautaro, Dumfries and Barella, Bastoni and Thuram, etc...."

And in the meantime a lifetime has passed in between. Nerazzurra.