Inter, Riccardo Ferri team manager: The twin Bergomi, the no to Juve

Pino Bussi needed a few minutes to be impressed on the Rogoredo fields. There are two fourteen-year-olds who have caught his attention. A much more lively, but always composed; the other finds it hard to believe in age, with that mustache already so pronounced. The opponents are almost afraid to challenge them. So he immediately reported them to Inter, who then decided in 1977 to welcome them to their youth sector. Riccardo Ferri rejoices as if he had scored, Beppe Bergomi instead does not make a turn.

Yet they are the only ones to have passed a selection of 500 young players. Their story begins together and from that moment they will be inseparable, on and off the pitch. At the time, Ferri was deployed as a right winger. Then he moves to midfield, to improve the movements of the defensive phase. He ends up retreating again until Trapattoni frames him as a stopper. In practice, the most difficult opponents to mark touch him. Including Maradona: “He sent you out of time and you made a figure of m … We thought about it ten times before pouncing on him: a feint of the body and the ball disappeared”.

THE ORIGINS

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Ferri was born in Crema in 1963. The family is humble, the father is a worker and the mother takes care of the three children. When the second half goes to the radio, the biggest wait is to know the result of Juventus, the team of the father’s heart, who dreams that at least one of his boys will become a player. He will be satisfied with both Giacomo – the Turin flag – and Riccardo, who wants to imitate his older brother, even if when it comes to facing each other in Serie A they won’t talk before the matches. Meanwhile, he collects the stickers, without knowing that a few years later he too would end up on them.

INTER

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His career is mostly linked to Inter, where he plays for seventeen years, including four years in the nursery. His debut took place in 1981, it was Bersellini who wanted to throw him into the fray. Two years later he will be an immovable starter, in the next one he will find his first goal in Serie A, with a header against Juventus. In the Nerazzurri he won the 1989 Scudetto, the one of the records: he will be part of that defensive line that will suffer only 19 goals in the league, setting the record of points of the time at 58. After the Italian World Cup, he receives a proposal from Juve : a rich offer, would have earned 30% more. But it is not enough to make him waver. Ferri has always proudly remembered the no to the bianconeri, because at the time you didn’t change team to win but you had to work hard to do it with your own jersey. His was that of Inter and it could not be otherwise. In addition to an Italian Cup (1982) and an Italian Super Cup (1989) he will also raise the Uefa Cup in 1994. A sweet farewell, with a note of sadness. Not at his best physically, just returned from a serious muscle injury, he will tell Marini that he does not want to take the field in the second leg; he will only enter at 67 ‘. It is the epilogue, together with Zenga he will move to Sampdoria after the call from his friend Mancini. He will play for another two years and at only 32 he will decide to quit.

CURIOSITY’

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His name always comes up when it comes to own goals. He, together with Franco Baresi, holds the record of the Italian championship with eight. One of these also hurts him particularly, the one in the derby with Milan in the 1987-88 season. But they were different times, in which a detour, however little decisive, was enough to condemn the unfortunate defender. Suffice it to say that all the names that appear in the ranking belong to a rather distant past. Even Ligabue, a well-known Inter player, will reiterate this unpleasant record in the notes in “What time is the end of the world”. For a negative memory there is a very funny one, like when in retreat with the National team he challenges together with other Altobelli teammates to do a naked run, and then hide his clothes. And just at that moment Spillo will be surprised by the federal president Matarrese.

TODAY

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Ferri has always remained in contact with Inter and often participated in matches reserved for legends. After having coached the Nerazzurri youth teams in recent years, he is ready for a new chapter with the same colors. He will be the Club Manager of the Nerazzurri and will work alongside Simone Inzaghi, towards whom he has always had words of admiration for the game expressed by the team. A role that he will play with a sincere passion, a feeling that is perceived strongly when he thinks of his two years at Sampdoria: “It was a wonderful interlude, in a city I loved and with fans that I loved, a shirt that I respected but I’ve never kissed her. I kissed the Inter shirt. Point”. There is no need to add anything else.