MILAN - "Inter was a marvellous team with a fantastic attack. We were all like artists with the ball. They were great years. I got on with everyone. At the age of 25, I had found my home in Milan with Inter."
Speaking a few years before his death in 2005, Istvan Nyers left no doubt as to the fondness of his memories of playing for Inter between the 1940s and 1950s.
Born in 1924, Nyers scored a stunning 133 league goals over the course of his six-year stay at Inter, a tally that still makes him the Nerazzurri's highest-scoring foreign player in Serie A. Nyers was a different type of player, not just for his modern, creative style, but also for the distinctive white ankle supports he always wore over his socks.
Nyers was born in France, where his family had emigrated to from Ozd, in the north of Hungary, in search of work. After moving to Budapest at the age of 14, Nyers learned to play football alongside his brother Ferenc. He began playing for local clubs, and - after a brief spell in Czechoslovakia - joined Stade Français, where he was coached by an Argentine manager by the name Helenio Herrera. Giulio Cappelli, himself a future Inter coach, noticed Nyers in a friendly between the French club and Inter, with the Hungarian moving to the Nerazzurri in 1948.
Nyers' impact at Inter was nothing short of extraordinary. Playing alongside other great talents such as Benito Lorenzi and Amedeo Amadei, Nyers - who was known simply as Stefano or Le Grand Etienne - instantly won over the Nerazzurri faithful with his dribbling, fearsome shot and enviable scoring record. After announcing himself to the club with a hat-trick against Sampdoria, Nyer went on to score 26 goals in his first season at Inter, bagging the Serie A golden boot.
And while Nyers had cause to celebrate in many games, he seemed to reserve his best form for the most important match of them all: the derby. In his first clash with the old enemy, Nyers opened the scoring as Inter secured a 2-0 win over the Rossoneri (with Lorenzi adding the second). The forward then followed that up with a brace in the 4-4 draw later in the season. In total, Nyers scored 11 goals against AC Milan, second only to Giuseppe Meazza's 12.
Nyers also participated in some of the most memorable derbies of all time. On 6 November 1949, Nyers was in the Nerazzurri side that found themselves 4-1 down to the Rossoneri after just 19 minutes, only to roar back and snatch a 6-5 win at the death. Four years later, Nyers - who lived life to the full away from the pitch, with American cars, poker and women among his passions - was left out of the squad for the derby on 1 November 1953 after requesting a pay rise and failing to repay a loan from the club. President Carlo Masseroni was not for moving, but the young advisor Giuseppe Prisco managed to persuade him to restore Nyers to the squad. The striker promptly repaid Prisco on match day with three goals between the 54th and 73rd minutes, as Inter beat AC Milan 3-0. They were Nyers' last goals against the Rossoneri.
At the end of the season, having helped the Nerazzurri to their second successive Scudetto triumph, Nyers decided to leave Inter. He later turned out for Roma before heading to Spain, where he linked up with Barcelona - albeit without playing a competitive match for the Catalans.
Nyers passed away at the age of 80 in 2005 in Subotica, Serbia, just a few miles from the border with Hungary, where his life as a footballer had begun many years earlier. His career in the meantime had been one of countless goals, the vast majority of them scored wearing the black and blue of Inter, a club he scaled great heights for - especially in the derby. Nyers was a true Brother of the World, a lethal marksman who spoke the language of goals better than them all.
Roberto Brambilla
