Inter Milan CEO Beppe Marotta & Juventus Coach Max Allegri – Rivals, But Never Enemies

Inter Milan CEO Beppe Marotta and Juventus coach Max Allegri may be rivals – but they’ll never exactly be bitter enemies.

Today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, via FCInterNews, highlight the longstanding professional respect between the two veterans of Italian football, whose paths have crossed on many occasions.

At the moment, Inter and Juventus are locked in a heated race for the Serie A title.

The Nerazzurri are now one point behind the Bianconeri. Albeit with a point in hand on their rivals.

And the title race involves two figures with a long history together.

At the helm of Juventus is the 56-year-old Allegri. He has won the Scudetto with both the Bianconeri and with AC Milan in the past.

Meanwhile, Inter’s coach is the comparatively less-experienced Simone Inzaghi.

But the Nerazzurri’s CEO for Sport is someone with more experience than virtually anyone in Italian football.

Marotta has been in the game for more than four decades.

Beppe Marotta & Max Allegri – Rivals, But Never Enemies

Marotta had first reached the absolute summit of Italian football whilst he was in charge of Juventus.

There, the veteran executive had won the Serie A title three times with Antonio Conte on the bench.

But after Conte had left abruptly in the summer of 2014, the Bianconeri were in a bind.

And it was Allegri who Marotta turned to to replace the future Chelsea and Nerazzurri coach.

The pair would go on to enjoy even more success at Juventus than they had done with Conte at the helm.

Allegri guided the Biancioneri not just to five Serie A titles, but also to two Champions League finals.

But Marotta departed Juventus in midseason during the 2018-19 campaign. And Allegri soon followed him, leaving in the summer of 2019.

Marotta ended up at Juventus, where he once again decided to hire Conte as coach. And history repeated itself, as Inter won the Serie A title for the first time in eleven years with Conte in charge.

Paths Diverge – But No Animosity

But as he had done from Juventus, Conte stormed out in the summer of 2021.

And Marotta makes no secret of the fact that he had considered Allegri as a replacement for Conte.

But in the end, history did not repeat itself there. Allegri re-joined Juventus that summer instead.

Since then, Inter have won the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana on two occasions each. And they’ve reached the Champions League final.

But Simone Inzaghi has yet to bring the Serie A title back to the San Siro.

Meanwhile, Allegri has yet to get his hands on silverware in his second go-around at Juventus.

This season, though both the Nerazzurri and the Bianconeri are desperate for the title.

And that has led to a sense of tension between the clubs – never far away in the Derby d’Italia.

Last season, an enraged Allegri proclaimed that Inter “Were sh*t and would finish sixth” after the Nerazzurri dumped his team out of the Coppa Italia.

This time around, the Bianconeri has been more coy. He made the rounds with his “cops and robbers” analogy for the current title race.

That could suggest some real animosity behind the scenes.

But the Gazzetta highlight how, despite all the factors leading the two clubs to be at proverbial war with one another, Marotta and Allegri feel no real animosity.

Each is a consummate professional. And both understands fully that the other is just doing what is best for their respective clubs.