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Inter and Italian national team legend passes away at the age of 83

2026-09-19 08:26:09Sport SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

Inter and Italian national team legend passes away at the age of 83

Sandro Mazzola, the symbol of Inter and legend of the Italian national football team, has passed away at the age of 83, after a long battle with illness.

"He was one of the greatest footballers in history. Not just in black and blue history," Inter wrote in its farewell message, listing his successes: "Four Italian championship titles, two Champions Cups, two Intercontinental Cups, the title of top scorer in Serie A (in 1965 with 17 goals) and in the Champions Cup (7 goals in 1964). Second in the race for the Ballon d'Or in 1971, after Johan Cruyff."

Those like Sandro Mazzola didn't need a name written on their jersey. To recognize them, all they needed was a dribble through the opposition and a pair of moustaches. Like that December evening in Budapest, in the Champions Cup against Vasas, when he dribbled past half of the Hungarian defense and, since he was there, also the goalkeeper. Then he stood dancing in front of the goal line, before finally deciding to send the ball into the net.

Or that other time in Bern, when wearing the blue jersey of Italy, inside the penalty area, he kept the ball in the air with six magnificent touches, without ever letting it touch the grass. Things that only he could do.

Sandro Mazzola was 83 years old. He left this world as he had dreamed: with his Inter at the top of the standings and with the hope of new glories ahead. Sandro had been battling the disease for some time. But whenever he could, he did not miss meetings with his former teammates and loyal fans. Like a year ago, in May, when they gathered at Zanetti's restaurant to celebrate the 60th anniversary of winning the second Champions Cup.

Now, in the locker room of heaven, he will find Luisito Suarez, Franz Beckenbauer, Gigi Riva and Franco Baresi. To play an eternal match, with angels cheering. Like all the greats of sports, Mazzola, known by the nickname "The Moustache", was destined to divide the fans into two camps.

Either him or Rivera. Inter or Milan. An endless rivalry, where in the end everyone won, even when the electronic scoreboard showed a negative result. A rivalry that gave birth to an unforgettable era in a Milan that will never be the same again. Mazzola had his destiny written in his surname. A privilege, but also a burden. The obligation to prove that no one, not even Mother Nature herself, had given him anything.

Even on the small soccer fields near the church, everyone was waiting for his first mistake, an inaccurate pass, to immediately pass judgment:

"Of course, his father Valentino was something else."

This comparison weighed on him so much that one day Sandro decided to change sports and switch to basketball. He had talent for this sport too. Cesare Rubini's legendary Simmenthal club wanted him on the team.

"Your father would be turning in his grave," his mother, Emilia, warned him.

So, Sandro stayed at Inter, because he lived in Milan and played on the football field near the church with Adriano Celentano and Tony Renisi. Then he found a new "father", who would take him by the hand, along with his younger brother Ferruccio, and take them to the San Siro pitch before matches.

His name was Benito Lorenzi, the center forward of an Inter who knew how to win. Those moments reminded him of the Sundays when his father, Valentino, would take him to the Filadelfia stadium in Turin. There, goalkeeper Bacigalupo would let little Mazzola score goals, just to see him smile. Mazzola, who throughout his life wore only the black and blue jersey of Inter and the blue of the Italian national team.

President Angelo Moratti vetoed his loan to Como.

"To gain experience," was the reasoning of Helenio Herrera, who had no sympathy for what he considered a footballer favored because of his surname.

Later, it was Sandro himself who said no to Boniperti and Agnelli, who wanted him at Juventus in the last years of his career. But how could the son of the captain of the Greater Turin play for the hated rivals? His photo in the footballers' album did not end up simply pasted on a page. His little fans kept it inside their school notebook. Or on their study desk, looking at it like the photo of a beloved relative.

Sandro had a thousand stories to tell. Like the time he went to Brescia to see a young talent and came back with another guy, named Andrea Pirlo. Or when he took Ronaldo, "the real one," as he said, to Inter's headquarters to sign his contract.

Mazzola and the Italian national team. For him, playing for Italy was an honor. There was so much talent in that team that eleven places in the lineup were too few to include them all. And so it could happen that even a footballer like Gianni Rivera would be left out. Legends were built on the rivalry between them that had little to do with the truth.

They played the role of rivals well, but then they would meet in a restaurant, because among great footballers there is always a way to be on the same side. So, together, they “invented” the players’ union. In those days, when there were no agents to represent players, to make your voice heard, you really had to have the mind and legs of a Mazzola and a Rivera.

Inter's trophy cabinet was filled during those glorious '60s. The cup that, although only the result was recorded on their plaques, everyone understood that Mustaqe's "signature" had also been necessary to bring them home.

With him, Inter won its first star, its first Champions League and its first Intercontinental Cup. In the Prater Stadium in Vienna, in 1964, Mazzola scored two goals against the great Alfredo Di Stefano. At the end of the match, another Real Madrid legend, Ferenc Puskas, approached him with his shirt in his hand and said:

"Boy, I played against your father, Valentino, and you are worthy of him. Take the jersey."

And then there were those evenings when San Siro became the center of the football world. The upsets against Liverpool and the derbies, where sometimes you took a hit and sometimes you gave it.

Mazzola was a centre-forward, but also a playmaker. And if you put him on the wing, he shone just as well. His teacher, before Lorenzi, had been Peppino Meazza. Just the name is enough. Once, during a training session, Meazza frowned and said:

"I have a stain. I also played for Milan."

The young boys of Inter's youth team were left fascinated and scared at the same time.

"That day," Mazzola would later recall, "I understood what it meant to wear the black and blue jersey."

A jersey that you can't take off even when you end your football career.

The second half of Sandro Mazzola's life was as a manager. First with Ivanhoe Fraizzoli and then with Massimo Moratti. More triumphs followed, but without being able to recreate the atmosphere and magic of the Great Inter.

Mazzola also had his television commitments, as a sports commentator that was never banal. His verbal dribbles ended up in the net, just like the ones he once did on the playing field.

Farewell Sandro, the captain who filled the hearts of boys who truly believed in the future with dreams, because you had given them a present that deserved to be framed./Corriere Della Sera


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