Inter’s past, present and future. And much more besides. Honorary president Massimo Moratti spoke about himself, his family and everything he’s been through in an exclusive interview with Giorgio Porrà on Sky Italia’s ‘I Signori del Calcio’ programme, which aired on Sky Sport 1 on Christmas Eve.
It almost seems as if nothing has changed and yet a lot has happened. Do you feel more relief or fear at having turned the page?
“I haven’t explored my feelings about it all in any depth yet. In many ways I feel handing over to someone else was so clearly the right thing to do after all these years; it seemed like something that had to be done. Thohir is relatively intimidated by it all. He likes the environment he’s come into, he realises what a big thing it is – it’s hard to imagine just how big until you’re a part of it – but at the same time he finds it fascinating. Will I keep going to the stadium? I go to the stadium to support my team. At the match you forget what you are as you’re caught up in the moment. But the game is great when you immerse yourself in it completely from the first minute to the last. Lots of times you might keep quiet because you’re scared to death, but it’s great to be able to let yourself go too.”
Your father Angelo said that the primary duty of a president is to make people happy. Do you think you succeeded in that mission?
“Inter fans are wonderful for this very reason. They’re very alert, part president, part coach, part snob. And that makes them special fans. That’s why it’s so great to be president of Inter because the fans are difficult, special and grateful, but they never lose control in times of extreme joy or extreme despair. Why you do a certain thing is another matter. My father was an immensely generous person and I think he took over Inter precisely because he wanted to develop this club; it was important to him that it kept growing in stature. It’s more or less the same thing that happened to me and I must say that it’s wrong to assume that others are happy and so you’re automatically happy too but I must also say that perhaps it’s something you should aspire to. It’s certainly one of the best things.”
Renowned journalist Michele Serra wrote a while back that, before the successful period you had, Inter fans almost wallowed in their stream of rotten luck. Could you be credited with doing away with that sentiment?
“It was part of the club’s personality, part of a story. When I spoke just now about being snobbish, it’s precisely this feeling different, smarter, more long-suffering. It was a good thing, but also something that had to be overcome. Fortunately we did manage to overcome it. I must admit there was some wallowing involved, and a comical element to it too. I’m not going to get into serious matters now, but there were reasons behind all that bad luck [smiling]…”
To what extent would you say you’ve followed in your father’s footsteps?
“There’s no doubt he gave me a lot for many reasons, because it was such an intense adventure: dad’s experience at Inter was so hands-on that ours was too. He dragged us in, got us involved in all sorts of meetings, no matter how delicate they were. He always made sure we were a part of it. That sort of experience was useful to me years later to understand how to deal with things, although obviously the world has changed totally, in communications, in the management of the players, the agents. These aren’t negative things but they do complicate matters. So I had to deal with them all as I went along and I did it without expecting to control everything, but trying to go through it all with the pleasure and privilege of having such a task to do. My dad was undoubtedly a fantastic person so you can’t compare anything except our blood and our passion.”
Do you take over Inter as a therapeutic experience, to grow, but not to do business?
“It might be a business for lots of people, but not for us. What it can be is a school where you understand how business works, because in football everything is so quick and the pace of it all forces you to come up with rapid solutions; you have to know how to do your job and the other things you do at a different pace and with a different level of patience. Your character doesn’t change, if you’re someone who reacts you still react, but you learn to give it a bit more thought, to be a bit more tolerant.”
Does it irritate you that people have this image of Moratti as a president who is too kind, playing with his football toy?
“Yes, I did find it irritating, because I’m no mug. But everyone does things according to their personality, and also according to the path that follows the design they have chosen. You might make mistakes. Who knows how many times I’ve made a mistake and hurt someone without realising while going along my path. But then what sort of toy was Inter? No, it wasn’t that at all.”
What similarities are there in the relationship between Angelo Moratti and Herrera and the one between Massimo Moratti and Mourinho? Is it true your father sometimes imposed a line-up on Herrera?
“That did happen in two or three meetings between my father and the coach at critical moments. He didn’t like doing it, he didn’t feel he was a coach but it was done as an attempt to shake things up. It happened to me too but it’s not something I’d brag about, just as my father didn’t. The ability of a smart coach is to be able to take on certain advice while understanding the responsibility that a president has, that it’s something the president does to help you. And in any case the coach must have the president’s backing.”
Was ‘Il Mago’ really a Wizard? In what ways was he similar to Mourinho?
“What Herrera and Mourinho had very much in common, besides their strong characters, was their work ethic. Herrera knew everything about world football back in the day when there were no computers, just the radio and a little bit of TV. He got up early every morning, maintained contacts with everyone, unless he knew how to fly…”
How was Mourinho able to have such a big impact at Inter?
“What really set him apart was his personality and, as I said, his work ethic, his knowledge of the game, his ability to understand others, his measured way of controlling things, the way he captivated his players. In his own way he was also, in some respects, a humble worker. When I first met him I didn’t think I’d bring him to the club straight away, let’s say it was a safeguard because Mancini had told me he wanted to leave and I just wanted to know if he was free or not. From that day on he set about studying everything. I was 50% between him and Mancini but he had already studied everything about Inter.”
Was he really humble? He didn’t exactly look it from the outside…
“I can tell you that I greatly appreciate an act of humility from someone who is not a humble person.”
The moment you loved Mourinho the most and the moment you hated him the most? Could we say the two coincided?
“That image of him getting into a Real car on the day of the Champions League final is something you saw more than we did. It was less of an event for us. But looking back it was right, given that he didn’t want to stay any longer. We were happy that he’d given us back that blessed European Cup and that he could then try something new on a personal level. I didn’t hate him at all.”
Did you like his handcuffs gesture?
“If I say I liked it, they’ll accuse me of being uncivilised, but that’s the person he is, he’s an actor. You have to take it remembering the person he is.”
Is it a ‘farewell’ or a ‘see you again’? If things don’t go as hoped, will you return?
“It’s a ciao, not a farewell. You can’t have one foot on one side and one on the other, you have to think seriously about what you can do for the good of this team and this club. I have no plans or intention to interfere in something that I chose to step away from.”
Source: inter.it
