Memoirs of a Nerazzuri from the San Siro

Azzuri, as the entire soccer world knows, refers to the Italian national soccer team. It comes from the word azure meaning a light shade of blue - the color of the soccer jersey. For a soccer mad nation, such terms of endearment are not only obvious but also show passion in a different light.

So it’s but natural that such monikers would percolate to other soccer entities too, and clubs would get fond names in the bargain. The passionate soccer fans of Milan have thus branded their teams as well, again based on colours of the jersey. The red and black of AC Milan lead to their fans calling them Rossoneri (rosso = red and nero = black) while the city rivals Inter Milan are called Neroazzuri for their black and blue.

Even since I have been watching European soccer, I have been a massive fan of AC Milan but having come to Milan, I have been amazed at the support that Inter Milan rakes up. Most of my office colleagues are Inter fans and when trying to analyze the choice of teams, it was theorised that in early 1900s, the Milanese were the usual hoi polloi while the Inter fans were more from the affluent strata of society. Derby matches are often based on such passionate divides lending credence to the history of Yorkshire & Lancashire (Leeds and Man United in soccer) in the War of the Roses in England, Catalonia (Barca) & Madrid (Real) in Spain and even East Bengal and Mohun Bagan closer home. So once I decided that I was going to visit the San Siro with my colleagues, it was a foregone conclusion that it would have to be the Nerazzuri that I would see perform, especially with a particular co-worker Davide passionately egging me on to appreciate the Inter tradition.

Thus, last Wednesday, along with Davide, Tito and a few others, I was at the San Siro, to watch Inter play Lazio in Serie A. Inter Milan and Lazio Roma are some sort of soccer sisters per Italian soccer folklore. I, surely, was decked up as a strange Nerazzuri with my fond Barcelona scarf round my neck, eliciting a few strange stares. But it dissipated once I was in the Inter stands amidst 40,000 soccer crazed Inter fans singing, jumping and making merry. They transcended age, race, colour or creed and were simply there to see their favorite sons perform against a depleted Lazio of Rome. There was the usual male bastion but what was amazing was to see the beautiful ladies, all prettily decked up in Inter gear joining voices with their mates. There were many senior citizens as well, like a 70 something couple, clapping and cheering all the way and even jumping when the goals happened. It left me wondering whether spectator behavior is something that goes a long way in deciding the success of a sport (like consumer behavior does for a product) and why our country fails consistently in this game, most-played on the face of the earth. That, however, is a separate topic for hours of discussion and cannot only be reasoned due to spectator following, as sports administration, management, sponsorship, politics and sports culture will far override any jingoism (or lack thereof) that football supporters in India can show.

The present Lazio team is a far cry for the late 90s squad that hosted Mihajlovic, Nesta, Salas, Nedved, Boksic, Vieri to name a few under the able tutelage of manager Sven-Göran Eriksson. It languishes in the middle of the league and is nowadays considered easy prey to the big guys. Inter, on the other hand, are the current Serie A champions for the last 2 seasons running and have an embarrassment of riches in its squad. FC Internazionale, true to its name is a team littered with international players having, believe it or not, only 4 Italian players in its squad of 27 for the season in which only a fit Marco Materazzi, gets to play in the first eleven. Captain Javier Zanetti, superstars Zlatan Ibrahimović, Júlio César, Maicon, Luis Figo, Esteban Cambiasso form the core of the team which boasts of 7 Argentines, 5 Brazilians, 2 Frenchmen, 2 Colombians, 1 Serbian, 2 Portuguese, 1 Romanian, 1 Chilean, 1 Swede and even a Honduran besides the 4 Italians. A truly international outfit though it raises and also answers the question as to why Massimo Moratti (the club owner) does not spend on more home grown Italians especially when one of its favourite sons, Roberto Mancini is the head coach.

So on paper, it was a forgone conclusion, that the heavyweights would smother their Roman rivals but in the beautiful game there is no room for complacency. The stands were abuzz and suddenly the music system blared a familiar tune that had all the fans jumping and singing. It was the official song of Inter Milan, Pazza Inter. If I had got mesmerized by Liverpool’s immortal “You’ll never walk alone”, this was equally mesmerizing. And “watching” it live added a different dimension as the combined voices of the 40,000 odd rendered it decibel levels that could only be matched by the screeching tyres of a speeding Formula one car. It was enough to give a normal person gooseflesh let alone soccer loonies like me. A version of Pazza Inter, sung by the players themselves is shared here for the aural pleasure of readers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z74zP3W-fI

As the song and crowd rejoice reached fever pitch, the teams took the pitch amidst shouts of Ibra, Zanetti, Cambiasso and even Pele!!! Surprised? Not the original master but a young 20 yr old Portuguese midfielder signed by Inter only this summer and who made his first start this game, due to the depleted midfield (Patrick Vieira, Dejan Stankovic, Luis Figo and Olivier Dacourt were all holding injuries). And then the game started. The initial exchanges actually went Lazio’s way with Inter seemingly sleeping. The crowd was hardly perturbed though, as they knew that the tide would turn soon. Slowly the home team got into groove and a penalty ensued which was duly converted by the Swede “rockstar” Zlatan. Minutes later, Brazilian Maicon latched on to a defending error to make it 2-0 and within 30 minutes, victory was a forgone conclusion.

The human side of the Inter fans was amply portrayed when a huge banner appeared embossed with the words “Giustizia per Gabriele” (Justice for Gabriele). Gabriele Sandri, the Lazio DJ who was “accidentally” shot by a policeman a month back, incidentally when this match was originally scheduled to be played. The Inter fans had also prepared a improvised song for the late Gabriele and sung it during the game evoking a very sentimental response from the small but die hard Lazio contingent on the other part of the pitch, some of who were even seen in tears. Soccer in Italy is a religion and it was aptly evident that even in the madness, humanity was not at a loss.

There was a real funny incident when I saw all the fans jumping on their seats. Before I could fathom what happened, Davide shouted to me to jump along. And so I did without any clue what triggered such an action. It seemed that the derby rivalry had reached such comical proportions that the Inter faithful chanted along “chi non salta rossonero e’” which meant that anyone not jumping is a Rossoneri.

The hype and hoopla continued in the second half when Honduran David Suazo, another Inter recruit this season from Cagliari, scored the insurance 3rd goal. It was time for some changes and in came Hernan Crespo and then finally Matrix - that is how his teammates fondly call Marco Materazzi. The fans started chanting “Tutti pazzi per Materazzi” which translated means “All crazy about Materazzi”. The Matrix did not have much to do in the few remaining minutes of the game and Inter had duly won the battle 3-0.

Amidst shirt exchanges, Pazza Inter again played on the loudspeaker as the satiated crowd having fed to some heart warming soccer by a 2nd string squad, started leaving the stadium. It was a wonderful experience for me and I am looking forward to the day when the Neroazzuri meet the Rossoneri . It would be a tough call as I would have to weigh the newly made loyalty towards Inter and the age old romance about Milan, but what the heck, seeing the Milan derby am sure will be an experience of a lifetime whichever team I support that day.

Till then, it would be reliving the moments from the victory against Lazio and let my imagination run overtime into analyses and theories as to how (and if) ever could India reach such an exalted soccer stratosphere.


CIAO!!!