MILAN - Over 40 years since our first visit, Asia will now host the Nerazzurri once again in 2019 for a summer tournament – a sign of Inter’s growing links in the East.
Inter’s last Asian adventure came in July 2017, with their Summer Tour stopping off in Nanjing, Changzhou and Shanghai before finishing in Singapore. This tour included games against Schalke 04, Lyon, Bayern Munich and Chelsea, with the club then accompanied by Diego Milito who was the Nerazzurri’s Tour Ambassador. Prior to that, Mancini’s Inter also travelled to Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou to take part in a 2015 tournament.
However, Asia’s first Nerazzurri connection back in June 1978, when Eugenio Bersellini’s Inter side became the first Italian football club to visit China. Hosted in Beijing, it was here were there was a famous passing of the Nerazzurri baton. The team’s first friendly saw Sandro Mazzola out on the pitch, who then handed his No.10 jersey to a young Evaristo Beccalossi after the first half. For Mazzola, this match signified his last as a player before he took up the reins as a director. Meanwhile, for Beccalossi, this was his first outing with his new teammates and it provided his taste of Inter: “Our first trip was incredible, as was my first outing in the Nerazzurri shirt. I remember that there were 80,000 fans at the stadium and I remember a sea of bicycles that disappeared shortly after the final whistle. Up until that then, I’d always just gotten the train to go and train with Brescia, therefore, living such a foreign and impassioned experience was truly unique – just like scoring my first Nerazzurri goal in China.”
That tournament didn’t just signal a historic passage for the Nerazzurri No.10 shirt but also laid the foundations for a future filled with passion. Three months later, it was the China National Team’s turn as they travelled to Italy and Europe to take part in a tournament. Incidentally, their opening game was played at San Siro against Inter. In 2009, José Mourinho’s Nerazzurri would return to Asia once again, this time facing Lazio in the Supercoppa Italiana. They lost that day, however, it triggered the start of a campaign that would end in a historic Treble. Two years and six trophies later, with an even more extended fanbase, Beijing would host Inter once again – and also the #DerbyMilano for the first time.
However, there are not just pages of footballing history that have been written in Asia. Thanks to projects such as Inter Academy, Inter Campus, Inter Club, Inter Forever and the numerous local partnerships, the Nerazzurri have seen their brand grow exponentially. This has only been enhanced since Suning’s arrival, which now makes Inter’s presence in the East even more special.
And now, we’re ready for a new chapter: ASIA, WE'RE COMING!
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