Former Inter forward Hernan Crespo discussed his career and time with Inter in an interview in today’s print edition of the French magazine France Football.
“The pleasure of playing in the Champions League is already a goal. With Parma it was special because it was the first and only qualification of the club.
“Then I played others with other clubs like Lazio, Inter, Chelsea, Milan. With AC Milan I remember it necessarily, that match marked the history of the Champions League and football.
“The final in Istanbul against Liverpool, 3-0 to 3-3. But there are also other good memories, the first goal with Parma against Galatasaray, the header with Inter against Ajax.”
He revealed that he never wanted to leave Inter and if his time in England with Chelsea was difficult.
“I have to be honest, I didn’t want to leave Inter. I wanted to stay, I’d bought a house ten days earlier, but for financial reasons, Inter had decided to sell me.
“My dream was to play in Italy, I had never thought or dreamed of playing in the Premier League and when I got there, I finally had a lot of fun! It was great, really two excellent years with a good relationship with the Blues fans.”
Crespo touched on how he enjoyed playing in England and how his childhood dream was to play in Italy.
“I really enjoyed the culture and mentality of English football and today it is the best league in the world. But, like the Champions League, it was a late love! As a child I dreamed of Italy.
“But I’m very grateful for that experience and the challenge was to allow the club to win, the satisfaction of winning the Premier League was overwhelming.”
Finally, Crespo spoke about which players are really impressing him today.
“There is already Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo who are on a different level than the others. Then there are players that I like a lot like Robert Lewandowski, Karim Benzema, Luis Suarez, if we are only talking about number 9s, because if we talk about players who have a particular vision, they can play.
“A player who suffers a bit due to his transfer fee but he has to adapt, and has incredible intelligence, is Antoine Griezmann. He won a world cup, he understands the game in an incredible way, in Barcelona, we have not yet seen his best version.
“He accepted the challenge, with a completely different philosophy, it will take time. But there are many players I love, I didn’t mention the Argentinians, like Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain, Lautaro Martinez.”
Crespo spent many seasons in Milan with the Nerazzurri, across the latter half of his career. In that time, he made 116 appearances across all competitions, for a total of 7018 minutes. In that time, he scored 45 goals and provided seven assists, being a popular figure at the club.
He won three league titles with Inter, as well as two Supercoppa Italiana. The only other league title he won in his career was with Chelsea in the 2005/06 campaign.
