Marotta: Inter Duty-Bound to Honour Sandro Mazzola’s Legacy
Inter president Giuseppe Marotta says the club has an obligation to keep alive the memory of Sandro Mazzola, who died aged 83, describing the former captain as an icon whose values must be passed on to the youth academy.
Football Italia Staff
Updated on 20 September 2026
Inter president Giuseppe Marotta has said the club carries a responsibility to preserve the legacy of Sandro Mazzola, the former captain who died on Friday at the age of 83.
Speaking to Sportmediaset the day after Mazzola’s death, with quotes carried by FCInterNews, Marotta paid tribute to a player who spent his entire career at San Siro. “A legend of Inter has left us. He wore one shirt only, he wore this shirt for 17 consecutive seasons, so an entire life dedicated to the club,” he said.
“He helped write some truly extraordinary pages of that Inter, of the great sides of Helenio Herrera and Angelo Moratti. Today, as a club, we have an obligation to preserve the memory of this icon, because within that memory are many values that we must necessarily transmit through his example to the new generation and to all our boys in the youth sector.”
Asked to share a personal memory of Mazzola, Marotta offered two, drawn from different stages of his own career. “There can be two memories, because he also worked as an executive. As a player, I was small, but I remember the second European Cup win at San Siro, when I watched the victory against Benfica from the stands. And the second one as a colleague, when he was general manager of Euro Venezia, I negotiated with him for a talent who could have gone on to do even better, but who was already a great player – Alvaro Recoba.”
Mazzola made 565 appearances for Inter across 17 seasons, scoring 158 goals and winning four Serie A titles and two European Cups without ever pulling on another club’s shirt. He was the son of Grande Torino captain Valentino Mazzola, who died in the Superga air disaster when Sandro was just six years old.
He made his Serie A debut as a teenager in 1961 and scored twice in the 3-1 European Cup final victory over Real Madrid in 1964. Mazzola also earned 70 caps for Italy, helping the Azzurri win Euro 1968 and reach the 1970 World Cup final, before going on to work as a director and television commentator after hanging up his boots.
His funeral will take place on Monday at Sant’Ambrogio in Milan, with tributes continuing to pour in from across Italian football for one of the Nerazzurri’s most decorated servants.
Football Italia Staff
The Football Italia news desk covers Serie A, transfers and the Azzurri.
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