FC Internazionale Milano, their president Giuseppe Marotta, vice-president Javier Zanetti, manager Cristian Chivu and his staff, the players and the entire Inter world join, with deep emotion, in mourning the passing of Sandro Mazzola, an Inter legend and a legend of world football, and, in remembering him, embrace his family.
The urge to remember is bound up with restraint: how hard it is to find the right words to say farewell to someone who made history, who truly wrote it, in an indelible and unprecedented way.
Then the melancholy takes hold, already here and refusing to leave, because it still feels as if we can see him between the club headquarters and Appiano, recalling Puskas, Herrera, Suarez and Corso, one anecdote after another, before folding each one back into the present, the desire for Inter still burning in his eyes, wanting to talk about Lautaro and our Inter, today's Inter, Inter as they have always been.
Sandro Mazzola was one of the greatest footballers in history. Not just in Inter's history. He was Inter's history: he entered it as a boy and never left it. He carried a heavy burden on his shoulders, the memory of a father who seemed invincible. His destiny also brought him two legendary Inter figures who, in effect, raised him and led him on his journey into history.
One shirt for a lifetime, one dream alone. He had to build it without a father, lost in the Superga disaster, that of the Grande Torino. Alessandro, for everyone Sandro, Sandrino, was six years, five months and 23 days old. He saw the devastated faces of the people embracing him and stroking his head, and he wondered what was happening. Sandro came to know the man Valentino had been through the epic retold day after day. He started shaping his own at the San Lorenzo oratory in Milan, in Porta Ticinese, in full-pitch matches against Adriano Celentano. Nor was he the only Inter man to leave a mark on his growth: Giuseppe Meazza and Benito Lorenzi. Meazza developed him technically, teaching him every secret. Lorenzi turned up at Sandro's house in Cassano d'Adda with boots and a ball. By the age of eight, Mazzola and his brother were, in effect, Inter's mascots: between the pitch, the dressing rooms and the stadium, a complete Inter upbringing.
He skipped the stages and grew 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. He went from a school oral exam to the trip to the Piedmontese capital, where Moratti and Herrera fielded the youth team. It finished 9-1, and Inter's scorer was a skinny 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 and unleashed an uncontrollable explosion in that spectacular army that was La Grande Inter. His consecration came very early, blessed by the giants of world football. The Prater in Vienna, European Cup final, 1964. As they walked on to the pitch, it was Suarez who pushed Mazzola out there: Sandro had stayed outside the dressing room admiring his idols, 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, an unprecedented triumph bearing Mazzola's signature and Puskas's compliments: “You are worthy of your father Valentino,” the great Hungarian told him, handing over his shirt.
Those are stories we know by heart, stories we have heard again and again without ever tiring of them, each retelling bringing out a new detail, all delivered in that affable voice always moved by memory. He felt devotion and total gratitude towards Inter, “like a mother to me”, and repaid it with an endless stream of moves, goals and wonders. Four Serie A titles, two European Cups, 2 Intercontinental Cups, the Serie A top scorer title (in 1965 with 17 goals) and the European Cup top scorer title (7 goals in 1964). Runner-up in the 1971 Ballon d'Or behind Johan Cruyff.
Then came the Grande Inter of Angelo Moratti, of Helenio Herrera, of Sarti, Burgnich, Facchetti. Mazzola was there, between midfield and attack, drawing trajectories and scoring goals. European nights, afternoons at the Meazza. Huge and unforgettable goals. His trademark one against Independiente in the Intercontinental Cup, the comeback against Liverpool marked by his stamp and celebrated with “When the Saints Go Marching In” blasted through the loudspeakers at San Siro. And more: the derby goal 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.
Across 17 seasons, he played 565 official matches and scored 158 goals. His bond with Inter never ended, first in a career as an executive and then as sporting director. Even behind a desk, his intuition remained unique. Platini and Falcao, who then slipped away. Zenga, brought back to Milan from Sambenedettese. And, above all, Ronaldo. The Phenomenon arrived after the pressure applied by Moratti and Mazzola, precisely. When R9 was presented at Inter's headquarters, Luis Suarez and Sandro Mazzola stood alongside him.
Even in recent years, he kept visiting Inter headquarters. He, who is in the club's Hall of Fame, always spoke about his unique and indissoluble bond with the Nerazzurri colours. He did so too during a recent visit to Appiano Gentile, when he told Lautaro and his team-mates about it. It was a place where he felt at home, where he remembered training camps with Herrera amid wonderful and highly amusing anecdotes.
Inter's fans showed him their affection in person in May 2024, on the day of the celebration of the second star: he, with Bedin and Cappellini, was on the pitch, celebrated for that first star won 58 years earlier.
He shone on the pitch, and his moustached star shines even now. And as he often said, he 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.
