Fluctuating from greatness to ordinary, and back again

Internazionale were not the first Italian club to have a player nominated for a Ballon d’Or.

Before Lennart Skoglund was shortlisted in 1958 several clubs on the peninsula had at least one of their stars recognised, including Padova who many decades later plummeted through the divisions before enduring liquidation.

In the first five years of Ballon d’Or, I Nerazzurri had two players nominated. In that period, Juventus had seven players shortlisted, AC Milan and Fiorentina four apiece.

Indeed, when it comes to Juve and their city neighbours, this disparity exists across the entire history of Ballon d’Or, so you may justifiably be wondering why it isn’t one of those two sporting behemoths being celebrated here instead.

For which, the answer is two-fold and simple.

Firstly, in 70 years of Ballon d’or, Inter Milan have proudly produced 84 nominees, a substantial tally in its own right, and that’s before we acknowledge that three of them have won the Golden Ball, and another six finished runner-up.

But also, crucially, despite winning 21 Scudettos and the European Cup/Champions League on three occasions, this is a club that has experienced fluctuating fortunes, from incredible eras of dominance to falling behind their immediate peers.

And it is fascinating to note how these two contrasting set of circumstances are reflected in their Ballon d’Or story.  

The emergence of La Grande Inter

The arrival of head coach Helenio Herrera in 1960 from Barcelona seismically transformed the fortunes of Internazionale and in doing so changed the landscape of European football for a generation.

A disciple of catenaccio, a defensive structure that deployed four man-markers across the back with a free libero to ‘sweep up’, Herrera did not invent the system but he certainly mastered it, before exhibiting it on the world stage with some of the finest exponents of the defensive arts.

Across his highly successful eight-year tenure in Milan, Inter were the undoubted clean sheet kings of Italy.

Yet, of course, it is not possible to win multiple league titles and a brace of European Cups – in 1964 and 1965 – solely be keeping opponents at bay. Wonderful and inventive attacking fare is required too.

In 1961, the reigning Ballon d’Or champion Luis Suárez signed for a then world record fee, his explosive exploits in Italy gaining the inside-forward a further trio of top three finishes.  

Around the same time, Giacinto Facchetti made his talents known with Trevigliese. A 6ft 3 marauding midfielder at the time, Herrera cleverly converted him into one of the most impactful attacking full-backs the game has ever seen.

Facchetti would finish runner-up in the Ballon d’Or in 1965, receiving multiple nominations on either side.  

Soon after, Sandro Mazzola emerged, a playmaker of rare repute who is widely viewed as an immortal great of the game.

Think of La Grande Inter and fortitude first comes to mind. But they had so much extraordinary flair too.

A Teutonic tonic

After reigning supreme domestically for much of the Sixties, Inter then reluctantly took a back seat to Juventus for a number of years and this very much comes through in their decline in Ballon d’Or nominations.

Between 1976 and 1984, the club boasted only two nominees.

In response to this, they again embarked on an expensive purchase of a proven Ballon d’Or winner, in this instance a two-time champion in the form of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

The prolific German striker duly fired I Nerazzurri back towards the summit of Italian football, subsequently finishing eighth and fifth in the rankings, in 1984 and 1985 respectively.

Perhaps inspired by the success of this approach, Inter then repeated the recipe, bringing both Lothar Matthäus and Andreas Brehme to the San Siro from Bavaria.

After propelling Die Mannschaft to a World Cup triumph in 1990, Matthäus held aloft the Golden Ball while the brilliant Brehme finished third.

Joining them that year in sixth place was Jürgen Klinsmann who had signed from Stuttgart 12 months prior.

This meant that after experiencing some lean Ballon d’Or years, Inter remarkably had three of their players in the top six, all of them German.

A notable boom

The recruitment of these Teutonic greats elevated I Nerazzurri and, in part, did likewise for Serie A, a league that was embarking on a notable boom in popularity and power.

Across the nineteen-nineties and beyond, the Italian top-flight rivalled La Liga for resources and stature.

This burgeoning prestige afforded clubs to attract the world’s best talents and in Inter’s case this included the headline-making securement of Ronaldo Nazário, the striker winning his first of two Ballon d’Or some months later.

Five years later, soon after leaving Italy for Spain, O Fenômeno was again crowned the best player in the world. Both Inter and his new club Real Madrid are credited with benefiting from his genius that particular year.

Fast-forward several seasons, and Inter were again prominent at the gala, producing four nominees apiece for two years running and from their names alone it is possible to gauge the club’s immense standing at this juncture.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was in the reckoning, as too Samuel Eto’o and Wesley Sneijder.

Only then, true to type, came a decline after a soar.

For a full decade, Inter had just one player nominated, the Slovenian stopper Samir Handanović twice in contention for the Yashin Trophy.

This sustained Ballon d’Or drought ended in 2023 when the club rose once more, winning Serie A titles and twice reaching the final of the Champions League.

Among their esteemed ranks was Laurato Martinez and Nicolò Barella, the former nominated every year since.

Which includes 2026, and on this occasion I Nerazzurri may only have one male nominee – the ever-ruthless Martinez – but it’s definitely worth noting what has occurred in the women’s category.

For the first time ever, Inter Women have a contender for the most prestigious individual honour in the sport – the Belgian forward Tessa Wullaert.