The 22nd of May 2010 is a date that no Interista will forget. The moment of truth when Inter had the chance to win the Champions League title, 45 years after the final 1965. And on top of that, Inter had the chance to win a treble. Something that no Italian team had done before. A starting eleven filled with champions stepped out on the grass. Players in the best stage of their careers and with the history that is needed to win titles. Players who until 22nd of May had won a couple of titles. More precisely they had won:
Julio Cesar(21 titles), Maicon(15 titles), Lucio(14 titles), Samuel(15 titles), Chivu (10 titles), Zanetti(12 titles), Cambiasso(16 titles), Sneijder(12 titles), Eto’o(12 titles), Diego Milito (3 titles), Pandev(3 titles). Subs Stankovic(21 titles), Muntari (5 titles), Materazzi(12 titles).
The same night, the players added to their talley before they won the the Italian supercup and the FIFA Club World Cup in december 2010. The latest title for many of these players was in 2011 when Inter beat Palermo in the Italian cup. The starting eleven against Bayern Munich had players that had won 133 titles together. You don’t need to be a genious to understand that Inter not only have sold good players in the last years to decrease the wage costs, but also a great part of the mentality that these champions carried.
A champion mentality that was put in the right environment by Mourinho and Moratti to withdraw the maximum from everyone. A perfect team that won everything that could be wone. But from the starting eleven in the final 22 of May 2010, only Zanetti, Chivu, Samuel, Cambiasso and Milito remain. The only substitute remaining, is Dejan Stankovic, Inter have always said that they are trying to create the right environment for promicing youngsters, so they can mix up with the experienced champions. But when the last champions are leaving Inter and will be replaced with new ones, who will learn the new arrivals about the mentality of a champion?
When Dejan Stankovic leaves Inter, the team does not only lose a great champion who has written important pages in the history of the club. The club also loses one of the biggest Inter hearts that there has ever been. When the primavera player Lorenzo Crisetig practiced with the seniors, he was asked who of Eto’o and Sneijder that impressed him the most. The youngster answered that Dejan Stankovic impressed him the most, because he had never seen anyone practice the way Deki did. In the same second that Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave Inter the lead against Parma in 2008, the cameras caught Deki crying by the sideline. When Moggi and friends tried to throw dirt on the image of Giacinto Facchetti before the season 2011/2012, it was none other than Stankovic who together with Ivan Cordoba who hung a giant flag of Giacinto Facchetti at the pre season camp in Pinzolo, to show everyone what Giacinto means for Inter.
When Inter are starting the season 2013/2014, there won’t be as many champions on the field, or off the field. It is up to the last champions to take great responsibility on the field, but mostly off the field. When Cambiasso, Zanetti, Samuel and Milito have to teach their new team mates what it means to represent Inter, their old team mates like Stankovic and Eto’o need to be in their thoughts. Not to forget, the legends like Giacinto Facchetti. Inter might not win titles 2013/2014, but if the mentality is the right one a treble isn’t needed to begin a new cycle. Because if the new players have the same hunger when they join Inter, as those who joined the team during our winning cycle, or those who were in the team and created it, we could go far even without winning the most important titles. Just ask Roberto Mancini who began the latest winning cycle that ended with the treble, by winning the Coppa Italia 2004.
Ps. Me and Danny Hansen will most probably write a longer article about Dejan Stankovic in the coming weeks, stay tuned.
