Foundation and early years (1908–1960) The club was founded on 9 March 1908 as
Football Club Internazionale, when a group of players left the Milan Cricket and Football Club (now
AC Milan) to form a new club because they wanted to accept more foreign players. The name of the club derives from the wish of its founding members to accept foreign players as well as Italians. The club won its first championship in 1910 and its second in 1920. The captain and coach of the first championship winning team was
Virgilio Fossati, who was later killed in battle while serving in the Italian army during World War I. In
1922, Inter was at risk of relegation to the
Second Division of
Northern League, but they remained in the top league after winning two play-offs. Six years later, during the Fascist era, the club merged with the
Unione Sportiva Milanese and, for political reasons, was renamed
Società Sportiva Ambrosiana. During the 1928–29 season, the team wore white
jerseys with a red cross emblazoned on it; the jersey's design was inspired by the flag and coat of arms of the city of Milan. In 1929, the new club chairman Oreste Simonotti changed the club's name to
Associazione Sportiva Ambrosiana and restored the previous black-and-blue jerseys; however, supporters continued to call the team
Inter, and in 1931, new chairman Pozzani succumbed to shareholder pressure and changed the name to
Associazione Sportiva Ambrosiana-Inter. still holds the record for the most goals scored in a debut season in Serie A, with 31 goals in his first season (1929–30). Inter won its third championship titles in 1930 with the Hungarian coach
Arpad Weisz in the first ever edition of
Serie A, and the fourth in 1938 with former player
Armando Castellazzi as a 33 years old coach, that set the record for the youngest coach ever to win the national title that lasts to this day. Inter also got their first
Coppa Italia (Italian Cup) in
1939 with the decisive goal in the final scored by Olympic gold medal and
top scorer in 1936 Olympics Annibale Frossi. Inter's main star and the captain of the team in this period was
Giuseppe Meazza, one of the greatest Italian players of all time with two
World Cups won with the National team and the greatest scorer in Inter history with 284 goals, and after whom the
San Siro stadium is officially named after his death in 1980. 38 goals scored by Meazza in 39 matches in 1929-1930 is a seasonal record in Inter history still unbeaten today. Inter ended also three consecutive times in 2nd place between 1933 and 1935; in those years many South Americans of Italian origin arrived in
Milan to circumvent the regime's rules that prohibit the hiring of foreign players: Uruguayan players like World Cup Winner in
1930 Hector Scarone and
Ernesto Mascheroni and also
Ricardo Faccio and
Francesco Frione, and Argentinian like
Attilio Demaría that stayed 10 seasons with the club. A fifth championship followed in 1940, that ended a decade dominated by three teams: Inter,
Bologna and the historic rival
Juventus, while AC Milan didn't win a title for 44 years from 1907 to 1951 and didn't win a single derby for a record 17 matches from 1928 to 1938. In the 1930s Inter also played for seven times in one of the first major European football cups, the
Central European Cup, with Meazza that was a record three times topscorer of the competition; coached by Árpád Weisz Inter reached the final in
1933, when after had won the first leg in Milan 2–1, lost 3–1 in 9 men against
Austria Vienna. 4 out of 11 players of that team: Meazza,
Luigi Allemandi,
Attilio Demaría and
Armando Castellazzi would go on to win the
1934 World Cup with
Italian national team, while other five Inter players will contribute to the win of
1938 World Cup with Italy: Meazza,
Ugo Locatelli,
Giovanni Ferrari,
Pietro Ferraris and
Renato Olmi. ,
Lennart Skoglund,
Fulvio Nesti,
Bruno Mazza,
Attilio Giovannini (captain),
István Nyers; crouched:
Bruno Padulazzi,
Gino Armano,
Maino Neri,
Giorgio Ghezzi,
Giovanni Giacomazzi. After the end of World War II, the club's name changed back to its original one, Internazionale, starting from the debut of a 16 years old
Mario Corso and the acquisition of
Aristide Guarneri in 1958, and under Argentinian coach
Helenio Herrera in 1960 with the signing of
Giacinto Facchetti and
Armando Picchi.
Grande Inter (1960–1967) ,
Giacinto Facchetti,
Joaquín Peiró and
Gianfranco Bedin with 1965 European Cup trophy In 1960, manager
Helenio Herrera joined Inter from
Barcelona and in his first season as a coach in Milan, after having led the table for most of the season, lost the title in the last games of the season, with the infamous episode during Juventus–Inter held in Turin in April 1961 when the match was stopped after 30 minutes when Juventus supporters invaded the pitch, with Inter being awarded the game 2–0. Then, after two months, in June before the last decisive match of Serie A with the two teams tied in first place, the
Italian Football Federation, presided by Juventus president
Umberto Agnelli, decided that the match between the two teams had to be replayed after the last game scheduled for the season; with Inter loss and a draw for Juventus, the following match became useless and in open contestation Angelo Moratti ordered Herrera to put the Inter youth team against the Turinese squad: the match ended 9–1 for Juventus, with the only goal scored for Inter by an 18-year-old, the son of
Valentino Mazzola,
Sandro Mazzola who later would become one of the greatest legends in the history of the club. , the most successful coach in club's history, guided Inter for a record 9 seasons After his first season in Milan, Herrera brought with him for a record fee of 25 million pesetas Spanish midfielder
Luis Suárez who won the
European Footballer of the Year in 1960 for his role in Barcelona's
La Liga/
Fairs Cup double. Herrera would transform Inter into one of the leading teams in Europe that would win three Serie A titles in four years, two
European Cups and two
Intercontinental Cups in a row. He modified a 5–3–2 tactic known as the "
Verrou" ("door bolt"), which created greater flexibility for counterattacks. The
catenaccio system was invented by an Austrian coach,
Karl Rappan. Rappan's original system was implemented with four fixed defenders, playing a strict man-to-man marking system, plus a
playmaker in the middle of the field, who plays the ball together with two midfield
wings. Herrera would modify it by adding a fifth defender, the
sweeper or libero, behind the two
centre backs. The sweeper or
libero, who acted as the free man, would deal with any attackers who went through the two
centre backs. The core of Herrera's team were the goalkeeper
Giuliano Sarti, the
full-backs
Tarcisio Burgnich and
Giacinto Facchetti,
Armando Picchi the sweeper, Suárez the playmaker, the Brazilian
Jair the right winger,
Mario Corso the left winger and
Sandro Mazzola, who played on the inside-right. ,
Guarneri,
Facchetti,
Tagnin,
Burgnich,
Picchi (c). Front row from left to right:
Jair,
Mazzola,
Suárez,
Corso,
Milani. After the Serie A title won in the previous season, in 1964 Inter reached the
European Cup Final by beating
Borussia Dortmund in the semi-final and
Partizan in the quarter-final. In the final in
Praterstadion,
Vienna, they met
Real Madrid, a team that had reached seven out of the nine finals to date. Mazzola scored two goals and one from
Milani in a 3–1 victory, becoming also the first ever team to win the tournament without losing a single game. The team also won the
Intercontinental Cup; after having lost the first match in Argentine against
Independiente 1–0, Inter won second leg 2–0 in San Siro with goals from Mazzola and Corso, in the third decisive match played at the
Santiago Bernabeu, Inter won in extra-time with a goal from Mario Corso, the first Italian club to win the trophy and become club world champion. In 1964, Inter added other important players
Angelo Domenghini,
Gianfranco Bedin and another Spanish
Joaquín Peiró, who played with consistency and was decisive in European Cup where three foreign players could play at the same time, while in Serie A only two were allowed to play. played for the highly successful Inter team remembered by the name of "La Grande Inter" in the 1960s, he spent all of his 17 career seasons from 1960 to 1977 with Inter shirt. A year later, after have defeated
Liverpool in the semi-final second leg 3–0 recovering from a 3–1 defeat at
Anfield, with Facchetti scoring the decisive goal, Inter repeated the feat by beating two-time winner
Benfica in the
final held at home, from a Jair goal, and then again beat Independiente in the
Intercontinental Cup with a 3–0 win in San Siro, with two goals from Mazzola and one from Peirò, and a draw in Argentine, becoming the first European team to win two times in a row the competition. Inter came close to winning the
Treble for the first time in European football history that year, after having also won the
Serie A title, but lost the
Coppa Italia final against Juventus in a game played in the last days of August 1965. Facchetti was voted second in
1965 Ballon d'Or rankings, just missing out the chance to become the first defender to win the award. Inter again reached semi-finals of the
European cup in 1966, but this time lost against a Real Madrid team that would go on to win the tournament, while in national championship Herrera's squad won the tenth scudetto in club history, the first
Star. At the end of the season, Moratti signed two of the greatest players of all time:
Franz Beckenbauer and
Eusebio; but, after
1966 World Cup when Italian National Team was eliminated by North Korea, the Italian Federation decided to block new signings of foreign players, a ban which lasted until 1980; thus, the contracts with the two players were cancelled. In 1967, after Inter eliminated Real Madrid in quarter-finals, with Suárez and Jair injured, Inter lost the European Cup final in
Lisbon 2–1 to
Celtic; a week later, despite the first position, with a lost against
Mantova in the last match of the championship, Inter lost also the Serie A title and, a week later, the Coppa Italia semi-final against
Padova, putting an end de facto to the Grande Inter cicle with the first season without trophy since 1961–1962. During that year, the club changed its name to
Football Club Internazionale Milano, and in 1968 after 13 years
Angelo Moratti sold the team to
Ivanoe Fraizzoli, and also Helenio Herrera left the team.
Subsequent achievements (1967–1991) Facchetti, captain of
Italian National team for an all-time record of 11 years, Burnich and Guarneri formed also the defense of Italy that won
UEFA Euro 1968 with Mazzola and Domenghini, and that with the addition of Inter players
Roberto Boninsegna and
Mario Bertini also reached
final of 1970 World Cup against Brazil, tournament known also for the famous semifinal match, the so-called "
Game of the Century" against West Germany. Following the golden era of the 1960s, Inter managed to win their eleventh league title in
1971 under the coach
Giovanni Invernizzi who took over the job during the season with the team that made a great comeback after have had a difficult start, with 23 consecutive matches without a loss, with
Roberto Boninsegna, one of the greatest strikers in club history, who led the league with 24 goals in that seasons and repeated the feat the following season with 22. Inter reached for the second time in five years the European Cup final in
1972 after have defetead
Borussia Mönchengladbach,
Standard Liège and Celtic in the semi-final, with a team which still featured Facchetti, Mazzola, Burnich, Jair, Bedin and Corso (the latter who could not play in the remain matches of the competition for disqualification after the red card at the end of the first match against Mönchengladbach) and also a young
Gabriele Oriali. The final held in
Rotterdam saw the victory for 2–0 of
Johan Cruyff's
Ajax that won the trophy for the second consecutive season. scored 173 goals in 285 matches for Inter, still holds the all-time Serie A record of 19 consecutive penalties scored The return of Helenio Herrera in 1973 as Inter coach lasted only 16 matches, for a heart attack that obliged him to leave the coaching job. Mazzola retired in 1977 and Facchetti, the last member of La Grande Inter, retired in 1978 as the most prolific defender in the history of Serie A with 59 goals scored and after having won the last trophy of his career, the Coppa Italia. Inter won their twelfth scudetto in
1980, the last one won in the history of Serie A by a team composed entirely of Italian players, and also added two to its Coppa Italia tally, in
1977–78 (with the future captain
Graziano Bini who scored the decisive goal in the final against Napoli) and in
1981–82, both under coach
Eugenio Bersellini.
Alessandro Altobelli, who later became the all-time leading scorer in Coppa Italia and in International competition for the club and played for Inter for 11 seasons, scored 209 goals, second only to Giuseppe Meazza. Altobelli also scored three goals against Juventus in a 4-0 victory on 11 November 1979, a feat which was repeated again five years later on the same day on 11 November 1984, with the same result, this time with the first two goals in Serie A for
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. In this period, AC Milan were relegated two times in
Serie B, the first time in 1980 for implications involved in the
Totonero scandal and then again after the team ended its
1981–82 campaign in third-last place. In 1981, Inter reached for the sixth time in six participations the semi-final of the
European Cup, this time against Real Madrid, a classic match, and who they would encounter again in three different European competitions throughout the 1980s: in
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals in 1983 and in
Uefa Cup semi-finals in 1985 and 1986.
Giuseppe Bergomi, the youngest player to make his professional debut in first team in the history of the club at 16 years old, one month and eight days in January 1980, remained at Inter for all his career for a record 20 seasons, till the end of 1998-1999 season. Bergomi with Oriali, Altobelli,
Gianpiero Marini and
Ivano Bordon were part of Italy squad that won
1982 FIFA World Cup. The Italian federation reopened the possibility to sign foreign players in 1980; in the following years, Inter signed among others:
Herbert Prohaska,
Hansi Müller from
VfB Stuttgart, two times
Ballon d'Or winner
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge from
Bayern Munich (who formed a deadly duo with Altobelli),
Liam Brady and Argentinian
Daniel Passarella. Other important players in that time were Italians
Walter Zenga (voted as
World's Best Goalkeeper by
IFFHS for three years in a row in 1989, 1990 and 1991) and the defenders
Giuseppe Baresi, Bergomi and
Riccardo Ferri. Led by the German duo of
Andreas Brehme and
Lothar Matthäus, with
Aldo Serena top scorer in Serie A with 22 goals, Argentinian
Ramón Díaz and
Nicola Berti, Inter, coached by
Giovanni Trapattoni, captured the
1989 Serie A championship setting many record, the so called “Scudetto dei Record”: ended with an all-time record for most points in Serie A history with 18 teams with 58 points out of 68, 26 victories out of 34 matches, the best offence and the best defense, with an 11 point margin over
Maradona's Napoli and 12 point margin over AC Milan, coached by
Sacchi (with two points per victory, rule that lasted until the end of 1993-1994 season). Inter were unable to defend their title in the following season in a very competitive Serie A that saw six different teams win in seven years, and despite adding fellow German
Jürgen Klinsmann to the squad and winning their first
Supercoppa Italiana at the start of the season.
Mixed fortunes (1991–2004) The 1990s were disappointing years in terms of victories, while their great rivals, Milan and Juventus, achieved successes mainly at a domestic level in Serie A, and also winning the renamed
UEFA Champions League once each. Inter enjoyed little success in the domestic league standings, their worst coming in
1993–94 when they finished in thirteenth position, just one point above the relegation zone. Nevertheless, they achieved prestigious European success, with three
UEFA Cup victories out of four finals, in 1991, 1994 and 1998. After the win of
1990 World Cup of
West Germany led by three Inter players, Matthäus was awarded the
Ballon d'Or and ended 1990–1991, his most prolific in career, with 23 goals, including six in
1991 UEFA Cup, the first European trophy since the Grande Inter period; Trapattoni left the team after five seasons. At the end of
1991, Matthäus also won the first ever
FIFA World Player of the Year. after winning the 1994 UEFA Cup. In 1992, after a disappointing season, to replace the three German players that left in the summer and with the new coach
Osvaldo Bagnoli, Inter signed important players like the future Ballon d'Or winner
Matthias Sammer,
Rubén Sosa and
Igor Shalimov, the first Russian player in club history; others were ultimately less successful, like the former
European Golden Boot winner
Darko Pancev and
Salvatore Schillaci; Inter ended the season in second place behind AC Milan, coached by
Fabio Capello. In the following season, Inter acquired from Ajax
Wim Jonk and
Dennis Bergkamp, the latter who with eight goals in the competition led Inter to their second UEFA Cup victory in
1994, despite the worst result in club history in Serie A. With
Massimo Moratti's takeover from
Ernesto Pellegrini in 1995, Inter twice broke the
world record transfer fee in this period (
£19.5 million for
Ronaldo from Barcelona in 1997 and £31 million for
Christian Vieri from
Lazio two years later). Among Moratti's first acquisitions in 1995 there were
Javier Zanetti from
Banfield, who would stay at Inter until 2014 with a record of 858 game played and with a record 13 seasons as captain,
Paul Ince from
Manchester United and
Roberto Carlos from
Palmeiras, who was sold the following season to
Real Madrid, with many regrets and recriminations from fans. However, the 1990s remained the only decade in Inter's history in which they did not win a single Serie A championship. This persistent lack of success led to poor relations between the fanbase and the chairman, the managers and even some individual players. In the 1996–97 season, Inter reached a third
UEFA Cup final, losing this time on penalties in the second leg at the Giuseppe Meazza against
Schalke 04, with
Roy Hodgson resigning shortly afterwards. In the 1997–98 season, with the acquisition of the
European Golden Shoe and later Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year winner
Ronaldo, under coach
Luigi Simoni, Inter had won their third
UEFA Cup in
Paris, beating Lazio 3–0, with goals from
Ivan Zamorano, Zanetti and Ronaldo, and nearly won Serie A title, with many controversial refereeing decisions. This culminated in the decisive match against Juventus in Turin, with Inter only one point behind with four games left, when referee didn't give a penalty to
Ronaldo, but a few seconds later, gave a penalty to Juventus; this generated a turmoil on the pitch and a big scandal. The referee sent off Simoni, and president Moratti left the building shortly afterwards, saying to journalists: “I’m not sticking around just to be made fun of”. At the end of 1998, Inter was ranked by
IFFHS as
Best Club in the World for that year. (number 10),
Zamorano (1+8),
Figo (7) and
Lothar Matthäus (10) and
Javier Zanetti (4) are displayed at San Siro. Moratti later became a target of the fans, especially when he sacked the much-loved coach Simoni after a few games into the 1998–99 season, five days after Inter defeated Real Madrid 3–1 at San Siro in Champions League group stage, with two goals from
Roberto Baggio, and having just received the
Italian manager of the year award for 1998 the day before being dismissed. That season, despite four coaching changes, Inter reached the Champions League quarter-finals, where they were eliminated by Manchester United, who would go on to win the trophy that year; Inter failed to qualify for any European competition for the first time in seven years, finishing in eighth place. 's first season with Inter concluded with 34 goals scored in 47 matches. The following season, in 1999–2000, Moratti appointed former Juventus manager
Marcello Lippi, and signed players such as
Angelo Peruzzi,
Laurent Blanc,
Iván Córdoba,
Clarence Seedorf from Real Madrid and also Vieri and
Jugović; he also sold other important players, like
Diego Simeone,
Youri Djorkaeff,
Aron Winter and
Gianluca Pagliuca. The team came close to their first domestic success since 1989 when they reached the
Coppa Italia final, only to be defeated by Lazio, in a match remembered for the second severe injury to the right knee of Ronaldo, who was returning after five months of inactivity, and which would keep him out for more than a year and a half. Inter's misfortunes continued the following season, losing the
2000 Supercoppa Italiana match against Lazio 4–3, after initially taking the lead through new signing
Robbie Keane. They were also eliminated in the preliminary round of the
Champions League by Swedish club
Helsingborg, with
Álvaro Recoba missing a crucial late penalty. Lippi was sacked after only a single game of the new season, following Inter's first-ever Serie A defeat to
Reggina.
Marco Tardelli, chosen to replace Lippi, failed to improve results and is remembered by Inter fans as the manager who lost 6–0 in the city derby against a weak AC Milan, who finished the season in sixth place behind Inter, who finished in fifth. After the unfortunate decision to sell
Andrea Pirlo to rival AC Milan in the summer of 2001 for 35 billion Italian lira, in the next season with new coach
Hector Cuper, the acquisition of
Francesco Toldo (the second most expensive goalkeeper in the world at that time),
Marco Materazzi and the return after injury of Ronaldo to partner Vieri (a 'dream pairing' that played only 11 matches for a total of 667 minutes in three years, scoring 18 goals), not only did Inter manage to make it to the
UEFA Cup semi-finals, but were also only 45 minutes away from capturing the
Scudetto when they needed to maintain their one-goal advantage away to Lazio. Inter were 2–1 up after only 24 minutes. Lazio equalised during first half injury time, and then scored two more goals by Simeone and
Simone Inzaghi in the second half to secure victory that saw Juventus win the championship, Roma ended second and Inter third. After brilliant performances and having won
2002 World Cup with Brazil, Ronaldo demanded to be sold to
Real Madrid for €45 million, and was replaced by
Hernan Crespo from Lazio for €40 million. Seedorf was sold to AC Milan and
Fabio Cannavaro was acquired from Parma. , "The Wall", played for Inter from 2005 to 2014. He won all of the first 10
Derby di Milano fixtures he played in Serie A between 2005 and 2012. The next season, Inter finished as league runners-up, with Vieri the top scorer of
Serie A with 24 goals in 23 matches, while Crespo set a new record for
UCL Group stage with eight goals in six matches, but missed almost the rest of the season for a severe injury in January. In October 2002, in a home game against
Lyon, Inter was defeated for the first time in its history at home in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League, ending a run of 33 matches in 39 years. Inter reached the
2002–03 Champions League semi-finals against AC Milan, that were played also without the injured Vieri, and was eliminated on the
away goals rule with two draws in the same stadium, the San Siro. After only one season, Crespo was sold to
Chelsea for €26 million and was replaced by
Julio Cruz from
Bologna for €9.5 million. The 2003–04 season started well, with an historic win for Inter and for Italian football in the Champions League at
Highbury against
Arsenal of
Invincibles with a 3–0 victory, as well as a win against
Dinamo Kyiv; but, after a draw against Brescia in Serie A, in October coach Cuper was sacked and was replaced by
Alberto Zaccheroni, who couldn't help to avoid the elimination from the Champions League group stage. Despite acquisition in January of strong players like
Dejan Stankovic and
Adriano, Inter ultimately finished only in fourth place in Serie A. Other members of the Inter "family" during this period who "suffered" were the likes of Vieri and Cannavaro, both of whom had their restaurants in Milan vandalised after the second defeats of the season to the
Rossoneri 3–2 in February 2004 in Serie A; but the most important was the resignation from presidency by Massimo Moratti in favour of
Giacinto Facchetti in January 2004, that lasted until the premature death of Inter legend in September 2006.
Comeback and unprecedented treble (2004–2011) , beating
Roma. On 8 July 2004, Inter appointed former Lazio manager
Roberto Mancini as its new head coach, with players who will make the history of Inter like
Esteban Cambiasso,
Julio Cesar, and in 2005
Walter Samuel and
Luis Figo from
Real Madrid. In his first season, the team collected 72 points from 18 wins, 18 draws and only two losses, as well as winning the Coppa Italia against Roma, with two goals from
Adriano, and later the Supercoppa Italiana in Turin against Juventus with a goal from
Juan Sebastián Verón. After Adriano's dominating performances in the
2004 Copa América and the
2005 FIFA Confederations Cup, both won by Brazil, he was awarded the
IFFHS World's Best International Goal Scorer in 2005. On 11 May 2006, Inter won the Coppa Italia title for the second season in a row after defeating
Roma with a 4–1 aggregate victory (a 1–1 scoreline in Rome and a 3–1 win at the San Siro). Inter were awarded the
2005–06 Serie A championship retrospectively, after title-winning Juventus was relegated for match fixing and illecits involved among others referee designators
Bergamo and
Pairetto and referees, with their executives Moggi and Giraudo, who were at Juventus since 1994, banned for life from football, and points were stripped also from other clubs involved, including AC Milan, due to the implications in
Calciopoli scandal. During the following season, Inter with new players like
Maicon,
Maxwell,
Patrick Vieira,
Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the return of Crespo from
Chelsea, went on a record-breaking run of 17 consecutive victories in Serie A, starting on 25 September 2006, with a 4–1 home victory over
Livorno, and ending on 28 February 2007, after a 1–1 draw at home to
Udinese. On 22 April 2007, Inter won their second consecutive
Scudetto—and first on the field since 1989—when they defeated
Siena 2–1 at
Stadio Artemio Franchi, ended the season with an all time Serie A record of 97 points and an all-time record margin of 22 points over second place Roma.
Italian World Cup-winning defender
Marco Materazzi scored both goals. at Santiago Bernabéu. In winning the final, Inter became the first and only Italian team to win the
treble. In this period, Inter also reached two UCL quarter-finals in
2005 and
2006, and the UCL round of 16 in
2007: on the last two occasions, Inter was eliminated via away goals rules by
Villarreal and
Valencia. Inter started the
2007–08 season with the goal of winning both Serie A and the Champions League in the year of the centenary of the foundation of the club. The team started well in the league, topping the table from the first round of matches, and also managed to qualify for the Champions League knockout stage. However, also due to serious injuries to many important players, a late collapse, leading to a 2–0 defeat with ten men away to
Liverpool on 19 February in the Champions League, brought manager Roberto Mancini's future at Inter into question, while domestic form took a sharp turn of fortune, with the team failing to win in the three following Serie A games. After being eliminated by Liverpool in the Champions League, Mancini announced his intention to leave his job immediately, only to change his mind the following day. On the final day of the
2007–08 Serie A season, Inter played
Parma away, that had to win to not be relegated in Serie B after 18 years; Roma scored in Catania and was in the first place until
Zlatan Ibrahimović, ten minutes after having come on to the pitch in the second half, scored two goals and sealed their third consecutive championship. Mancini, however, was sacked soon after, due to his previous announcement to leave the club. On 2 June 2008, Inter appointed former
Porto and
Chelsea boss
José Mourinho as the new head coach. In his first season, the
Nerazzurri won a
Suppercoppa Italiana and
a fourth consecutive title, though falling in the Champions League in the first knockout round for a third-straight year, losing to eventual finalists
Manchester United. In winning the league title, Inter became the first club since 1949 to win the title for four consecutive seasons, and joined
Torino and Juventus as the only clubs to accomplish this feat, as well as being the first club based outside
Turin. {{football squad on pitch|align=left|clear=none In the summer of 2009, Inter laid the foundation for maybe the greatest single season of its history: after have signed
Diego Milito and
Thiago Motta from
Genoa,
Lúcio from Bayern Munich, the club agreed to sell Ibrahimovic to Barcelona in change for
Samuel Eto'o plus 49 million euros. The transfer window ended with the signing of
Wesley Sneijder from Real Madrid on August 26, who three days later played against AC Milan, a game which ended in 4-0 victory. Inter won the
2009–10 Champions League, defeating in round of 16 one of the favourites,
Ancelotti's Chelsea, winning both legs, the latter with the first win in
Stamford Bridge with a goal from
Samuel Eto'o. Then, they beat
CSKA Moscow and reigning champions, the Barcelona of
Pep Guardiola in the semi-final, with the second leg at the
Camp Nou played with ten men for most of the match; they then beat
Bayern Munich 2–0 in the final in Madrid, with two goals from
Diego Milito. In this season, Chelsea, Barcelona and Bayern all won their domestic championship. Inter also won the
2009–10 Serie A title by two points over Roma, the fifth title in a row, and the
2010 Coppa Italia by defeating the same side 1–0 in the final. This made Inter the first and only Italian team to win the
treble. At the end of the season, Mourinho left the club to manage Real Madrid; he was replaced by
Rafael Benítez. scored 30 goals in 2009-2010 season, most notably in
Coppa Italia final, in the last Serie A decisive match against Siena and two goals in
Champions League final. In the summer, Inter sold 20-year-old
Balotelli to
Manchester City for 29,5 million euros, the second highest for the club at that time. On 21 August 2010, Inter defeated Roma 3–1 and won the
2010 Supercoppa Italiana, their fourth trophy of the year. In December 2010, they claimed the
FIFA Club World Cup for the first time after a 3–0 win against
Mazembe in
the final, becoming for the third time world champion. However, after this win, on 23 December 2010, due to their declining performance in Serie A, the club fired Benítez. He was replaced by
Leonardo the following day. Inter was also ranked for the second time in 2010 as
Best Club in the World by
IFFHS. Leonardo started with 30 points from 12 games, with an average of 2.5 points per game, better than his predecessors Benítez and Mourinho. On 6 March 2011, Leonardo set a new Italian Serie A record by collecting 33 points in 13 games; the previous record was 32 points in 13 games, made by Fabio Capello in the 2004–05 season. Leonardo led the club to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, after having defeated Bayern Munich once again in Round of 16, recovering from a 0–1 home defeat with a 2–3 win in Munich, with decisive goals from
Sneijder and
Goran Pandev, before subsequently losing to
Schalke 04; Inter ended the season second in Serie A and won the
Coppa Italia title. At the end of the season, however, he resigned, and was followed by new managers
Gian Piero Gasperini,
Claudio Ranieri (who qualified Inter for Round of 16 of UCL) and
Andrea Stramaccioni, all hired during the following season. Inter finished sixth place in the championship, ending a Serie A record of ten consecutive qualifications for the Champions League, and their first season without a trophy since 2003–2004.
Changes in ownership (2011–2019) scored a career-high 37 goals in the 2010–11 season, including in the
FIFA Club World Cup final, twice in the
Supercoppa Italiana final and in the
Coppa Italia final. To fulfill
UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations and to make the club more economically sustainable, Inter spent less on transfer fees and salaries in the early 2010s. From 2011, the payroll was decreased by a third in two years, veterans on higher salaries were replaced with younger players: in August 2011, Eto'o was sold to
Anzhi, in January 2012 Thiago Motta left for
PSG, in the summer of 2012 Julio Cesar, Maicon and Lucio and also Sneijder in January 2013. This approach weakened the competitiveness of the team for a number of years On 1 August 2012, the club announced that Moratti was to sell a minority stake of the club to a Chinese consortium led by
Kenneth Huang. On the same day, Inter announced an agreement was formed with
China Railway Construction Corporation Limited for a new stadium project, however, this deal later collapsed. The 2012–13 season was the worst in recent club history, with Inter finishing ninth in Serie A and failing to qualify for any European competitions, but it was also notable as Inter became the first team to win at the new
Juventus Stadium, ending the 49 match unbeaten streak of Juventus in Serie A, with two goals from Milito and one from
Rodrigo Palacio.
Walter Mazzarri was appointed to replace Stramaccioni as the manager for
2013–14 season on 24 May 2013, having ended his tenure at Napoli. He guided the club to fifth in Serie A and to
2014–15 UEFA Europa League qualification; after the season, the last players of 2010 treble that remained left the team: Chivu, Samuel, Zanetti, Milito and Cambiasso. On 15 October 2013, an Indonesian consortium (International Sports Capital HK) led by
Erick Thohir, Handy Soetedjo and
Rosan Roeslani, signed an agreement to acquire 70% of Inter shares from Internazionale Holding S.r.l. Moratti's Internazionale Holding S.r.l. still retained 29.5% of the shares of FC Internazionale Milano S.p.A. After the deal, the shares of Inter were owned by a chain of holding companies, namely International Sports Capital S.p.A. of Italy (for 70% stake), International Sports Capital HK Limited, and Asian Sports Ventures HK Limited of Hong Kong. Asian Sports Ventures HK Limited, itself another intermediate holding company, was owned by Nusantara Sports Ventures HK Limited (60% stake, a company owned by Thohir), Alke Sports Investment HK Limited (20% stake) and Aksis Sports Capital HK Limited (20% stake). Thohir, who also co-owned
Major League Soccer (MLS) club
D.C. United and
Indonesia Super League (ISL) club
Persib Bandung, announced on 2 December 2013 that Inter and D.C. United had formed a
strategic partnership. Under Thohir's ownership, the club began to modify its financial structure from one reliant on continual owner investment to a self-sustainable business model, although the club still breached
UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations in 2015. The club was fined and received a squad reduction in UEFA competitions, with additional penalties suspended during the probation period. During this time, Roberto Mancini returned as the club manager on 14 November 2014, with Inter finishing eighth. Inter finished
2015–2016 season fourth, failing to return to the Champions League. on 18 September 2014 On 6 June 2016,
Suning Holdings Group (via a Luxembourg-based subsidiary Great Horizon S.á r.l.) a company owned by
Zhang Jindong, co-founder and chairman of
Suning Commerce Group, acquired a majority stake of Inter from Thohir's consortium International Sports Capital S.p.A., and later acquired Moratti's remaining shares in Internazionale Holding S.r.l. According to various filings, the total investment from Suning was €270 million. The deal was approved by an
extraordinary general meeting on 28 June 2016, from which Suning Holdings Group had acquired a 68.55% stake in the club. The first season of new ownership, however, started with poor performance in pre-season friendlies. On 8 August 2016, Inter parted company with head coach Roberto Mancini by mutual consent over disagreements regarding the club's direction, especially regarding new signings
Joao Mario, who was acquired for €44.75 million (the second most expensive player in club history at that time) and
Gabriel Barbosa for €29.5 million. Mancini was replaced by
Frank de Boer, who was sacked on 1 November 2016 after a poor start to the season. His successor,
Stefano Pioli, could not prevent the team from getting the worst group result in
UEFA competitions in the club's history. Despite an eight-game winning streak, he and the club parted away before season's end, when it became clear they would finish outside the league's top three for the sixth consecutive season. On 9 June 2017, former Roma coach
Luciano Spalletti was appointed as manager, signing a two-year contract. Eleven months later Inter secured a
UEFA Champions League group stage spot thanks to a 3–2 victory against
Lazio in the final game of
2017–18 Serie A. Among the best tactical moves from Spalletti, there was the change of position for
Marcelo Brozovic who became one of the best defensive midfielders in European football. Due to this success, the club extended Spalletti's contract until 2021. On 4 July 2018, Inter signed
Lautaro Martínez from
Racing Club de Avellaneda for €25 million, who later became the club's third-highest all-time top goalscorer. On 26 October 2018,
Steven Zhang was appointed as the new president of the club, and on 13 December 2018,
Giuseppe Marotta joined Inter Milan as CEO. On 25 January 2019, the club announced that LionRock Capital from
Hong Kong had reached an agreement with International Sports Capital HK Limited to acquire 31.05% of Inter, becoming the club's new minority shareholder. After the
2018–19 Serie A season, despite finishing fourth in Serie A, Spalletti was sacked.
Renewed successes (2019–present) On 31 May 2019, Inter appointed former
Juventus and Italian manager
Antonio Conte as their new coach, signing a three-year deal. That same year, Inter acquired
Romelu Lukaku from
Manchester United for €74 million, becoming the most expensive player in club history,
Nicolò Barella for €44.5 million from
Cagliari and sold
Mauro Icardi, one of the best strikers in Italy in the preceding years (two times Serie A top scorer in 2015 and 2018), to
Paris Saint-Germain for €50 million.
Alessandro Bastoni, who had been acquired from
Atalanta in 2017 for €31.1 million, made his debut for Inter in the
2019–20 season. Along with
Milan Škriniar and
Stefan de Vrij, Bastoni was part of a strong defensive trio in a 3-5-2 that will be the best defense in Serie A in the following years. In September 2019,
Steven Zhang was elected to the board of the
European Club Association. In the 2019–20 season, Inter finished as runner-up in Serie A, in a championship suspended on March and concluded in the summer due to
COVID-19 related limitations. After an early elimination in Champions League group stage by finishing third, behind
Barcelona and
Borussia Dortmund, Inter reached the
2020 UEFA Europa League final played on 21 August in
Cologne behind closed doors: despite two goals scored by Lukaku and
Diego Godin, they eventually lost 3–2 to
Sevilla. Inter improved the team with signings of new players, among others, in January 2020
Christian Eriksen from
Tottenham Hotspur for €27.5 million and in July 2020
Achraf Hakimi from
Real Madrid for €43 million. and
Zlatan Ibrahimović in January 2021. Despite enduring the worst result in Champions League group stage in the club's history, Inter subsequently secured a record of 11 consecutive victories from the start of the second half of the season in Serie A. Following a win against Crotone in May 2021, Inter were confirmed as champions for the first time in eleven years, ending Juventus' run of nine consecutive titles and the Zhang family becoming the first foreign ownership group to win Serie A. However, despite this, Conte left the club by mutual consent on 26 May 2021, reportedly due to disagreements between Conte and the board over player transfers. In June 2021,
Simone Inzaghi was appointed as Conte's replacement. On 6 July 2021, Hakimi was sold to Paris Saint-Germain for €60 million and was replaced by
Denzel Dumfries from
PSV Eindhoven. On 8 August, Lukaku was sold to
Chelsea for €115 million, representing the
most expensive association football transfer by an Italian football club ever. Eriksen was later deemed unable to play in Italy after suffering cardiac arrest during
UEFA Euro 2020 and he departed the club for
Brentford in 2022. Inter qualified in the
UCL Round of 16 for the first time in ten years, but despite the club's first-ever win at Anfield thanks to a goal from
Lautaro Martínez, they were eliminated by Liverpool. On 12 January 2022, Inter won the
Supercoppa Italiana, defeating Juventus 2–1 at San Siro. In the last second of the extra time,
Alexis Sánchez scored the winning goal, giving Inzaghi the first trophy as Inter manager. On 11 May 2022, Inter won the
Coppa Italia, defeating Juventus 4–2 at
Stadio Olimpico. After normal time ended 2–2, with Barella and
Hakan Çalhanoğlu scoring Inter's goals,
Ivan Perišić's brace in the extra time gave Inter the win and a second trophy of the season. The
2021–22 Serie A campaign saw Inter finish in second place, being the most prolific attacking side with 84 goals scored. After the autumn break for the
2022 FIFA World Cup, on 18 January 2023, Inter won the
Supercoppa Italiana, defeating
Milan 3−0 at
King Fahd International Stadium, thanks to goals from
Federico Dimarco,
Edin Džeko, and Martínez. in August 2023. Inter advanced beyond the UCL group stage after eliminating Barcelona, and then after having defeated
Porto and
Benfica, qualified for the semi-finals. On 16 May 2023, Inter defeated archrivals Milan in the semi-finals of
2022–23 UEFA Champions League with goals from Džeko and
Henrikh Mkhitaryan in the first leg, and a goal from Martinez in the second leg, advancing to the
Champions League final for the first time since
2010. However, they were defeated at the
Atatürk Olympic Stadium 1−0 by
Manchester City after a second half goal from midfielder
Rodri. In July 2023, Inter sold
André Onana to Manchester United for €50 million and acquired
Marcus Thuram on a free transfer.
Samir Handanović retired after 11 seasons and 455 appearances for the club, registering an
all-time record in Serie A of 26 penalties saved. Brozović was sold to
Al Nassr, Škriniar moved to Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer, while other players were added to the squad:
Davide Frattesi from Sassuolo (€33 million),
Benjamin Pavard (€30 million) and
Yann Sommer (€6.9 million) both from Bayern Munich. Inter started the subsequent season with five consecutive wins, including a 5 to 1 victory over Milan, the largest in the Milan derby since 2009. In January 2024, Inter won its third consecutive and eighth overall
Supercoppa Italiana, tying the record set by Milan in the 1990s for consecutive wins by defeating
Lazio 3–0 in the semi-finals and
Napoli 1–0 in the final, with a late goal by Martínez. On 22 April 2024, Inter secured their 20th Serie A title and the second
Star by defeating Milan 2–1 at the San Siro, recording a record sixth consecutive
Derby della Madonnina win. The team finished a dominant season with 94 points, 19 over second-place Milan, scoring a league-high 89 goals, and the strongest defence, with 22 goals conceded: this +67 differential was the best in Serie A since the 1950–1951 season. coached Inter from 2021 to 2025, he holds the club record for most wins in the Champions League and in all UEFA competitions (25). On 22 May 2024, Oaktree Capital Management assumed ownership of Inter following the default of Suning Holdings Group on a €395 million ($428 million) loan against the club given in May 2021 to cover losses incurred during the
COVID-19 pandemic. The new ownership chose to appoint CEO
Giuseppe Marotta as the club's new chairman. Inter began their first season under the new ownership by drawing 2–2 to Genoa. The
2024–25 season ultimately proved to be a disappointment for the Nerazzurri as despite looking likely for a treble with a month of the season to go: nationally Inter finished second behind Napoli by a point in
Serie A, exit the
Coppa Italia in the semi finals by losing to Milan (who also previously in January came from behind to beat them in the
Supercoppa Italiana final). In the
Champions League Inter finished fourth in the new league phase ensuring automatic advancement to the round of 16, with only one goal conceded in eight matches. Inter then beat
Feyenoord in the round of 16, Bayern Munich 4–3 on aggregate in the quarter finals (winning in Munich ending a run of 22 matches in 4 years of unbeaten home run for the German team) and Barcelona in a thrilling 7–6 semi final tie: after a 3–3 in Spain in the first leg, a win for 4–3 in San Siro in extra time after being up 2–0, then down 2–3 until the equalizer in the last minutes in regulation time with a goal from
Acerbi and then the decisive goal from Frattesi which meant Inter would make the
Champions League final for the seventh time in their history and second time in three seasons. Despite having lost only once in 14 matches in the UCL this season, Inter lost the final 5–0 to Paris Saint-Germain. This marked a first trophyless season for the club since the
2019–20 season. Three days after the final, Inzaghi left the club by mutual consent, two weeks before Inter's first game in the inaugural
FIFA Club World Cup held in the United States. Former treble-winning Inter player
Cristian Chivu was then appointed as the club's new head coach. In the FIFA Club World Cup, after a draw against
Monterrey in the first match played at the
Rose Bowl in
Pasadena, they won the next two matches at
Lumen Field in
Seattle: the first against the
Urawa Red Diamonds 2-1 and the second against
River Plate 2-0, going through the group in first place, only to be eliminated in the round of 16 of the competition by
Fluminense. ==Colours and badge==