FC Internazionale Milano, president Giuseppe Marotta, vice-president Javier Zanetti, manager Cristian Chivu and his staff, the players and the entire Inter family join in profound sorrow at the passing of Sandro Mazzola, a Nerazzurri legend and a legend of world football, and in remembering him, embrace his family.
The urge to remember is mixed with hesitation: how hard it is to find the right words to bid farewell to someone who made history, truly made it, indelibly and in unprecedented fashion?
Hard too, gripped by a melancholy that is already here and will not leave us, because it still feels as though we can see him here, between the headquarters and Appiano, recalling Puskas, Herrera, Suarez and Corso, one anecdote after another, each one folding straight into the present, the desire for Inter shining in his eyes as he talked about Lautaro and our Inter, the one of today, the one of always.
Sandro Mazzola was one of the greatest footballers in history. Not only in Nerazzurri history. He was Inter's history: he entered it as a boy and never left. A heavy burden rested on his shoulders, the memory of a father who seemed invincible. Two legendary Nerazzurri figures shaped his destiny and, in effect, raised him as they guided him along his path through history.
One shirt for his whole life, one dream. One he had to build without a father, lost in the Superga air disaster, that of Grande Torino. Alessandro, for everyone Sandro, Sandrino, was six years, five months and 23 days old. He saw the devastated faces of the people who embraced him and ran their hands over his head, and wondered what was happening. He came to know what Valentino had been through the epic passed down day by day. He began to absorb it at the San Lorenzo oratory in Milan, in Porta Ticinese, in full-pitch games against Adriano Celentano. Nor was he the only Inter fan to shape Sandro's growth: Giuseppe Meazza and Benito Lorenzi did too. Meazza refined him technically, teaching him every secret. Lorenzi turned up at Sandro's home, in Cassano d’Adda, with boots and a ball. By the age of eight, Mazzola and his brother were effectively Inter's mascots: between the pitch, the dressing rooms and the stadium, it was a complete Nerazzurri education.
Skipping stages and growing up quickly out of necessity, Sandrino did it fast, helped by events too. Born in 1942, he was thrown into the first team in the infamous replay of Juventus v Inter on 10 June 1961 in Turin. From a test at school to the trip to the Piedmont capital, where Moratti and Herrera fielded the Primavera. It finished 9-1, and among Inter's scorers was a slim boy with a fine touch: Sandro Mazzola. He was 18.
A second striker, we would say today. An 8 and a 10, like the shirts he wore at Inter. Inside-forward or centre-forward? Herrera found the right role for him, sparking an uncontrollable explosion in that spectacular army that was Grande Inter. His consecration came quickly, sealed by the giants of world football. The Prater in Vienna, European Cup final, 1964. As they walked out, it was Suarez who pushed Mazzola on to the pitch: Sandro had stopped to admire his idols outside the dressing rooms, Di Stefano, Puskas and the other Real Madrid champions. Then came two goals. A brace in the European Cup final, Inter's first European triumph, a triumph without precedent carrying Mazzola's signature and Puskas's congratulations: “You are worthy of your father Valentino,” the great Hungarian told him, giving him his shirt.
These are stories we know by heart, stories we have heard again and again without ever tiring of them, finding a new detail every time, told in that affable voice always moved by memory. A sense of devotion and total gratitude towards Inter - “for me like a mother” - repaid with an endless stream of plays, goals, wonders. Four Serie A titles, two European Cups, 2 Intercontinental Cups, the title of Serie A top scorer (in 1965 with 17 goals) and European Cup top scorer (7 goals in 1964). Runner-up in the 1971 Ballon d'Or behind Johan Cruyff.
Grande Inter belonged to Angelo Moratti, Helenio Herrera, Sarti, Burgnich, Facchetti. Mazzola was there too, between midfield and attack, drawing trajectories and scoring goals. European nights, afternoons at the Meazza. Hugely important and unforgettable goals. His trademark strike against Independiente in the Intercontinental Cup, the comeback against Liverpool stamped with his mark and celebrated with “When the Saints Go Marching In” blasted over the loudspeakers at San Siro. Then again: the goal in the derby after 13 seconds, the goal in Inter v Lazio in 1966 that delivered the First Star. All the way to 1977. In between, the European Championship with Italy, the World Cups, the relay with Rivera.
Then came 17 seasons, 565 official matches and 158 goals. Yet his bond with Inter did not end there, carrying on through his career as an executive and then sporting director. He had a unique eye behind the desk too. Platini and Falcao, then deals that slipped away. Zenga, brought back to Milan from Sambenedettese. And, above all, Ronaldo. The Phenomenon arrived after pressure from Moratti and Mazzola, precisely. When R9 was presented at the Nerazzurri headquarters, Luis Suarez and Sandro Mazzola were beside him.
Even in recent years, he kept visiting Inter headquarters. He, who is in the Club Hall of Fame, always spoke about the unique and unbreakable bond with the Nerazzurri colours. He said the same to Lautaro and his team-mates too, during a recent visit to Appiano Gentile. It was a place where he felt at home, where he remembered the training camps with Herrera, amid wonderful and hugely amusing anecdotes.
In May 2024, he felt the affection of the Nerazzurri fans in person once more, on the day of the Second Star celebrations: he - with Bedin and Cappellini - was on the pitch, celebrated for that first star that had arrived 58 years earlier.
He shone on the pitch, and he shines even now, the star with the moustache. Who, as he often said, had only one final wish: “To be remembered as a good man, one who gives it a go even when it is impossible to win, as in that 9-1.”
We will do, Sandro.
