Former Inter director Marco Branca has reminisced about Inter’s famous 2009/10 season, 10 years on from it being completed with the capture of the Champions League after a 2-0 win over Bayern Munich.
In an interview with Italian daily newspaper Il Giorno, which appeared in today’s print edition, Branca spoke on the process of building what turned out to be the treble winning team.
“It was a slow construction for the first few years and then, when the conditions for a stable winning mentality were created, we were also able to make an almost 50% change in the starting team,” he began the interview.
He then went on to speak about some of the players who were brought in, many of whom were deemed surplus to requirements elsewhere and were out to prove their former employers that they were wrong to let them go.
“It was odd for a club that had been winning for years to implement such a profound upheaval. It was strange.
“Motta and Milito wanted to prove that they were capable of playing for a great team. Sneijder had been rejected by Real Madrid, Eto’o had been sent away from Barcelona and Lucio had been sent away from Bayern by Van Gaal. Everyone was very motivated.”
Branca then went on to talk about Inter’s Champions League semi final success over Barcelona that season: “I believe that we were super in those matches and it was because we were the stronger side.”
Branca, who has not been with Inter for a good few years now, then reflected on the contribution he made during his time with the club.
“I was chosen as technical director by the president after I had spent a season with him as chief of Inter scouts, I was only 38-years-old.
“I was a director at Inter for ten years, won 15 titles. It was a fabulous time. Will I go back to being a director in the future? Anything can happen, that’s my job. I have been gone from Inter for six years. Without Moratti I could not work with a new club.”
