Sandro Mazzola has died aged 83: Inter’s tribute

World of football in mourning.

The world of football mourns Sandro Mazzola, who has died at the age of 83.

By a twist of fate, Saturday 19 September marks the 100th anniversary of the inauguration of San Siro, the stage for a Milan derby that Inter won 6-3.

That was the home of his life, where he played for two decades from 1957 to 1977, scoring 162 goals in 566 matches for Inter, the only shirt he wore in his career.

Away from club football, he also represented the Italy team, with whom he scored 22 goals in 70 appearances, winning the European Championship in 1968 and reaching the final at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, lost 4-1 to Brazil after the legendary semi-final won 4-3 by Italy against Germany after extra time.

He also won 4 Serie A titles, 2 European Cups and 2 Intercontinental Cups with Inter, who in practice took him in from the time he was left orphaned at the age of six following the death of his father, Valentino Mazzola, the symbolic figure of the Grande Torino side, who died at the age of 30 on 4 May 1949 in the Superga air disaster.

Once he hung up his boots, Sandro Mazzola worked for Massimo Moratti's Inter as sporting director, a role he later also held at Torino, bringing the Brazilian Phenomenon Ronaldo to Milan, who has just turned 50.

Mazzola also worked as a television pundit for Rai Sport and TeleMontecarlo.

Inter statement

FC Internazionale Milano, president Giuseppe Marotta, vice-president Javier Zanetti, manager Cristian Chivu and his staff, the players and the entire Inter world join, with deep emotion, in mourning the passing of Sandro Mazzola, a Nerazzurri legend and a legend of world football, and, in remembering him, embrace his family.

Memory pulls one way, restraint the other: how hard it is to find the right words to say goodbye to someone who wrote history, truly wrote it, in an indelible and unprecedented way?

Harder still when melancholy has already set in and will not leave, because it still feels as if he is here, between the club headquarters and Appiano, recalling Puskas, Herrera, Suarez and Corso, one anecdote after another, each one slipping straight into the present, the desire for Inter burning in his eyes, talking about Lautaro and our Inter, the one of now, the one of always.

Sandro Mazzola was one of the greatest footballers in history. Not only in Nerazzurri history. He was Inter's history: he entered it as a boy and never left it. He carried a heavy burden on his shoulders, the memory of a father who seemed invincible. His destiny also held two legendary Nerazzurri who would, in effect, raise him and guide him on his path into history.

One shirt for a lifetime, one dream alone. He had to build it without a father, lost in the Superga disaster, that of the Grande Torino. Alessandro was six years, five months and 23 days old, to everyone Sandro, Sandrino. He saw the devastated faces of the people who hugged him and ran their hands over his head, and wondered what was happening. Sandro learned what Valentino had been through the epic handed down day by day. He began to nurture it at the San Lorenzo oratory in Milan, in Porta Ticinese, in full-pitch matches against Adriano Celentano. Giuseppe Meazza and Benito Lorenzi also shaped his growth. Meazza developed him technically, teaching him all the secrets. Lorenzi turned up at Sandro's home, in Cassano d’Adda, with boots and a ball. At the age of eight, Mazzola and his brother were in effect Inter's mascots: between pitch, dressing rooms and stadium, it was a complete Nerazzurri upbringing.

He skipped the stages and grew up out of necessity. Sandrino did it quickly, thanks also to events. Born in 1942, he was thrust into the first team in the infamous replay of Juventus v Inter on 10 June 1961 in Turin. One moment he was answering questions at school, the next he was on the trip to the Piedmont capital, where Moratti and Herrera fielded the Primavera. It finished 9-1, and for Inter a slim boy with a good touch scored: Sandro Mazzola. He was 18.

A second striker, we would say today. An 8 and a 10, like the shirts he wore at Inter. Inside forward or centre-forward? Herrera managed to build the right role around him, unleashing an uncontrollable explosion in that spectacular army that was the Grande Inter. His consecration? Very early, and sealed by the giants of world football. The Prater in Vienna, European Cup final, 1964. On the way onto the pitch, Suarez had to push Mazzola out: Sandro had stayed behind admiring his idols outside the dressing room, Di Stefano, Puskas and the other Real Madrid champions. Then, on the pitch, two goals. A brace in the European Cup final, Inter's first European triumph, an unprecedented triumph bearing Mazzola's signature and Puskas's congratulations: “You are worthy of your father Valentino,” the great Hungarian told him, giving him his shirt.

We know those stories by heart. We have heard them again and again without ever tiring of them, discovering a new detail each time, told in a voice that was affable and always moved by memory. He gave Inter devotion and total gratitude, “for me like a mother”, and Inter got an endless stream of plays, goals and marvels in return. Four Serie A titles, two European Cups, two Intercontinental Cups, the Serie A top scorer title (in 1965 with 17 goals) and the European Cup top scorer title (seven goals in 1964). Runner-up in the 1971 Ballon d'Or behind Johan Cruyff.

There was the Grande Inter of Angelo Moratti, of Helenio Herrera, of Sarti, Burgnich, Facchetti. Mazzola was there, between midfield and attack, drawing trajectories and scoring goals. European nights, afternoons at the Meazza. Huge and unforgettable goals. His mark against Independiente in the Intercontinental Cup, the comeback against Liverpool stamped by him and celebrated with “When the Saints Go Marching In” blasted over the loudspeakers at San Siro. And more: the goal in the derby after 13 seconds, the goal in Inter v Lazio in 1966 that delivered the First Star. Up until 1977. In between, the European Championship with Italy, the World Cups, the relay with Rivera.

Then came 17 seasons, 565 official matches, 158 goals. His bond with Inter never broke, with a career as an executive and then as sporting director. Even behind a desk, his instincts were unique. Platini and Falcao, then missed out on. Zenga, brought back to Milan from Sambenedettese. And, above all, Ronaldo. Il Fenomeno arrived after the pressure applied by Moratti and Mazzola, indeed. When R9 was presented at the Nerazzurri headquarters, Luis Suarez and Sandro Mazzola stood by his side.

In recent years he kept visiting Inter headquarters, he who is in the Club's Hall of Fame, and he always spoke of the unique and unbreakable bond with the Nerazzurri colours. He did so too by telling Lautaro and his team-mates about it during a recent visit to Appiano Gentile. That was where he felt at home, where he remembered training camps with Herrera amid wonderful and entertaining anecdotes.

In May 2024 he felt the affection of the Nerazzurri fans in person, on the day of the celebration of the Second Star: he, with Bedin and Cappellini, was on the pitch, celebrated for that first star won 58 years earlier.

He shone on the pitch, and his star still shines now, the star of the moustache. As he often said, he had just one final wish: “To be remembered as a good man, one who gives it a go even when it is impossible to win, like in that 9-1.”

We will, Sandro.

Serie A League’s condolences

Sandro Mazzola has died at the age of 83, son of the legendary Valentino and an extraordinary champion in his own right. An all-round midfielder, he was often deployed further forward thanks to his eye for goal and dribbling ability. He spent his entire career at Inter, played a leading role in the club's triumphs of the 1960s and wore the Nerazzurri shirt for 17 straight seasons. He also wrote unforgettable chapters in the Azzurri shirt at the European Championships and the World Cup. His trophy haul included 4 Serie A titles, 2 European Cups, 2 Intercontinental Cups and the European Championship title with Italy.

"Sandro Mazzola represents one of the most important and most authentic figures in the history of Italian football," said Ezio Simonelli, President of Lega Calcio Serie A. "I remember him first and foremost as a truly great champion, a protagonist of an extraordinary era of our football and someone capable of leaving an indelible mark in the shirts of Inter and Italy. His successes and his technical qualities belong to the collective memory of Italian sport. I also had the opportunity to know and appreciate him in a different role from that of footballer in his post-career business activity, when he was able to reinvent himself and demonstrate his managerial abilities. With his passing, we lose a true legend of Italian football, but also a person who knew how to approach the different stages of his professional life with intelligence and passion. On behalf of Lega Calcio Serie A and personally, I extend my deepest condolences to his family and to all those who loved him."