Current Benfica and former Inter and Sporting CP midfielder Joao Mario feels that even though he never really had success at the Nerazzurri, it was still important to his development as a player.
Speaking to Italian broadcaster SportMediaset following his side’s 4-3 Champions League victory over Juventus, the 29-year-old looked back on his time as an Inter player.
Mario joined Inter in the summer of 2016 from Sporting, off the back of winning the Euros with Portugal.
The midfielder never quite lived up to expectations in a Nerazzurri shirt, having then had loan spells with West Ham United and Lokomotiv Moscow before a loan return to Sporting helped him reignite his career.
Mario helped Sporting to their first league title in nineteen years, but his expected permanent transfer to the Lisbon-based club never took place.
Sporting and Inter could not agree upon a fee for a deal, and so it was Sporting’s bitter city rivals Benfica who swooped in to sign Mario on a permanent basis from Inter last summer.
The 29-year-old has become an important player for Benfica, and the former Nerazzurri midfielder bagged a goal and an assist to officially knock Juventus out of the Champions League yesterday evening.
“It’s now in the past,” he reflected of his time at Inter, “it didn’t go very well but I learned a lot in Milan.”
“What I learned there helped make me the player I am now,” he added.
