Inter Milan and Italy icon Mazzola dies aged 83
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Former Inter Milan and Italy playmaker Sandro Mazzola, one of the defining figures of the Nerazzurri's 1960s golden era, has died at the age of 83, the club announced Saturday.
"Sandro Mazzola was one of the greatest footballers in history. Not only in the history of the Nerazzurri," Inter said in a statement.
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With Inter, the dominant force in Italian football during the mid-1960s, Mazzola won four Serie A titles, as well as back-to-back European Cups in 1964 and 1965.
Mazzola, famed for his elegant moustache and attacking flair, scored 158 goals in 565 appearances for Inter and produced one of his best performances in the 1964 European Cup final, netting twice in a 3-1 victory over Real Madrid.
That earned him the seal of approval from Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas, who gave Mazzola his shirt after the match. "I played against your father. You are worthy of him," said Puskas.
His father was Valentino Mazzola, the Torino great who was killed in the 1949 Superga air disaster, which claimed the lives of 31 people, including 18 players and eight Italy internationals from the side known as the "Grande Torino". Sandro was just six at the time.
Mazzola made his Serie A debut as an 18-year-old in 1961, scoring Inter's only goal in a 9-1 rout by Juventus as the Milan club fielded its youth side in protest at an order to replay the match.
An attacking midfielder or second striker for Inter, Mazzola scored 22 times in 70 appearances for Italy and won the 1968 European Championship, as the Azzurri beat Yugoslavia 2-0 in a replay in Rome.
Mazzola's supposed inability to play alongside AC Milan star Gianni Rivera became a major talking point during the 1970 World Cup. Coach Ferruccio Valcareggi attempted to accommodate both players by giving each a half in Italy's quarter-final and semi-final matches.
- Ballon d'Or runner-up -
The controversy resurfaced in the final, when Italy were beaten 4-1 by Pele's Brazil. Mazzola started, with Rivera introduced only late on, prompting renewed criticism in the media despite the two players enjoying a cordial relationship off the field.
"Even though he was at Inter, we had an excellent relationship and a great friendship," Rivera told RAI Radio 1 after Mazzola's death.
"There was a period when they preferred to use us alternately, and neither of us understood why," he added.
Mazzola finished runner-up in 1971 to Johan Cruyff for the Ballon d'Or.
After a 17-year professional career, Mazzola retired in 1977 and held an executive position at Inter before later serving as sporting director of Torino.
"Today, another piece of the Nerazzurri legend leaves us. Sandro was Inter: he joined the club as a boy and chose to stay here forever, one shirt, seventeen seasons, an entire lifetime," said Inter president Giuseppe Marotta.
"With (Helenio) Herrera's Grande Inter, he wrote chapters that nobody will ever erase. Today, it is our duty to preserve his memory, because a club is only as great as its memory. And Sandro's memory will remain with us, forever."
A minute's silence will be held at all matches in Italy this weekend, the Italian football federation (FIGC) said.
"The passing of Sandro Mazzola is a profound sorrow for me and for all of Italian football. A legend has passed away, one of the figures who helped make our football great throughout the world," said FIGC president Giovanni Malago.
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