FC Internazionale Milano, 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, a Nerazzurri and world football legend, and, in remembering him, embrace his family.
The urge to remember mixes with restraint: how hard it is to find the right words to bid farewell to someone who made history, truly made it, in an indelible and unprecedented way.
Melancholy has already taken hold and will not leave us, because it still feels as though we can see him here, between the club headquarters and Appiano, recalling Puskas, Herrera, Suarez and Corso, one anecdote after another, each one instantly meeting the present, the desire for Inter alight in his eyes as he spoke about Lautaro and our Inter, today’s Inter, Inter forever.
Sandro Mazzola was one of the greatest footballers in history. Not only in Nerazzurri history. He was Inter history: he entered it as a boy and never left. A heavy burden rested on his shoulders, the memory of a father who had seemed invincible. His destiny also brought him two legendary Nerazzurri figures who, in effect, would raise him and lead him along his path through history.
One shirt for his whole life, one dream alone. Built without a father, lost in the Superga disaster, that of Grande Torino. Alessandro, Sandro to everyone, 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 he wondered what was happening. Sandro came to know who Valentino had been through an epic passed down day by day. He started to nourish it at the San Lorenzo oratory in Milan, in Porta Ticinese, in full-pitch matches against Adriano Celentano. He was not the only Inter man to shape his growth: Giuseppe Meazza and Benito Lorenzi did too. Meazza developed him technically, teaching him all the secrets. Lorenzi arrived at Sandro's home in Cassano d'Adda with boots and a ball. At 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 Nerazzurri upbringing.
Skipping stages, growing up quickly out of necessity. Sandrino did it fast, helped by events too. Born in '42, he found himself thrown into the first team in the infamous replay of Juventus v Inter on 10 June 1961 in Turin. From a school oral exam to the trip to the Piedmont capital, where Moratti and Herrera fielded the youth team. It finished 9-1, and Inter's goal came from 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 built the right role around him, setting off an unstoppable explosion in that spectacular army that was Grande Inter. His coronation came very early, sealed by the giants of world football. The Prater in Vienna, European Cup final, 1964. As they entered the pitch, Suarez pushed Mazzola on to it: Sandro had remained outside the dressing rooms admiring his idols, Di Stefano, Puskas and the other Real Madrid champions. Then, on the pitch, 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, giving him his shirt.
Stories we know by heart, ones we have heard over and over without ever tiring of them, discovering a new detail each time, told in that affable voice always moved by the memory. A sense of devotion and total gratitude towards Inter - "like a mother to me" - repaid with an endless stream of plays, 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.
Angelo Moratti's Grande Inter, Helenio Herrera's, Sarti's, Burgnich's, Facchetti's. Mazzola was there, between midfield and attack, drawing trajectories and scoring goals. European nights, afternoons at the Meazza. Huge, unforgettable goals. His hallmark against Independiente in the Intercontinental Cup, the comeback against Liverpool stamped by him and celebrated with "When the Saints Go Marching In" blasted over the loudspeakers at San Siro. Then again: the derby goal after 13 seconds, the goal in Inter v Lazio in 1966 that delivered the First Star. Until 1977. In between came the European Championship with Italy, the World Cups, the relay with Rivera.
17 seasons, 565 official matches, 158 goals. His bond with Inter never ended, first with a career as an executive and then as sporting director. Even behind a desk, he had unique intuition. Platini and Falcao, who then slipped away. Zenga, brought back to Milan from Sambenedettese. And, above all, Ronaldo. The Fenomeno, who arrived after the pressure applied by Moratti and Mazzola, precisely. When R9 was presented at Inter's headquarters, beside him were Luis Suarez and Sandro Mazzola.
His visits to Inter headquarters continued in recent years too. As a member of the club's Hall of Fame, he always spoke of his unique and unbreakable bond with the Nerazzurri colours. He did the same with Lautaro and his team-mates during a recent visit to Appiano Gentile. It was a place where he felt at home, where he recalled training camps with Herrera amid wonderful and highly amusing anecdotes.
He also felt the affection of the Nerazzurri fans first-hand in May 2024, on the day of the Second Star celebration: he, with Bedin and Cappellini, was on the pitch, celebrated for that first star won 58 years earlier.
The Moustache's star shone on the pitch and still shines now. And, as he often said, he had only one final wish: "To be remembered as a good man, one who keeps competing even when it is impossible to win, like in that 9-1."
We will, Sandro.
