2010–11 Inter Milan season

Overview

Only five days after winning the Champions League, on 28 May, Inter manager José Mourinho left the club and joined Real Madrid. On 10 June, Inter signed Rafael Benítez from Liverpool on a two-year contract, ending a six-year stint as manager.

During the summer transfer window, Inter signed Luca Castellazzi from Sampdoria, and also bought the entire rights to Jonathan Biabiany from Parma. After spending his last two season with Vasco da Gama in Brazil, Philippe Coutinho returned to Inter. Inter sold Ricardo Quaresma to Beşiktaş and Mario Balotelli to Manchester City, as well as also sold half of the rights to Rene Krhin to Bologna, Andrea Mei to Piacenza, and sent on one-year loan Vid Belec to Crotone, Victor Obinna to West Ham United and Andrea Ranocchia to Genoa after brought the half of his contract.

Meanwhile, during 2010 World Cup in South Africa ten players form Inter were included in their national teams, these players were Walter Samuel and Diego Milito with Argentina; Rene Krhin with Slovenia; Dejan Stanković as a captain of Serbia; Sulley Muntari with Ghana; Wesley Sneijder with the Netherlands; Samuel Eto'o as a captain of Cameroon; and Júlio César, Maicon, and Lúcio as a captain with Brazil. The Netherlands, including Wesley Sneijder, reached and lost the final match of the tournament against Spain after extra time.

Inter starts their season with a win over Roma in Supercoppa Italiana, to secure their first trophy of the season. Six days later Inter lost to Atlético Madrid in UEFA Super Cup, this defeat meant Inter lost their chance to collect six trophies in the same year, as Barcelona had done the year before. In December, Inter claimed the FIFA Club World Cup for the first time after a 3–0 win against TP Mazembe in the final. Inter completed The Quintuple, becoming the fourth team in the world after Liverpool in 2001, Al-Ahly in 2006 and Barcelona in 2009.

After this win, however, on 23 December, due to his poor performance in Serie A and separated by 13 points from the leader Milan, Inter announced on its website the departure of Rafael Benítez to be replaced by Leonardo the following day.

Leonardo has huge impact on the team even with the absent of Samuel Eto'o due to suspension, and Wesley Sneijder and Júlio César due to injury. Inter won their match against Napoli with two goals from Thiago Motta and another one form Esteban Cambiasso. Inter continues their good start with Leonardo with five wins in raw in all competitions, until they lost against Udinese, but Inter got in their feet quickly by qualified to the semifinal of Coppa Italia and win against Palermo after great comeback from 0–2 to win with 3–2 and two goals from new signing Giampaolo Pazzini.

Meanwhile, the winter transfer window for Inter was busy with transfers. Due to the long-term injury of Walter Samuel, Inter bought the remainder of Andrea Ranocchia's contract from Genoa to become Leonardo's first signing. On 13 January, Mancini left the club to join Atlético Mineiro. On 28 January, Inter announced signing of Giampaolo Pazzini from Sampdoria, as part of the deal that saw Jonathan Biabiany join Sampdoria. The next day, Houssine Kharja joined Inter on a loan deal from Genoa with option to sign permanently, while Sulley Muntari joined Sunderland on loan. On the last day of winter transfer window, Inter sent Nelson Rivas to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk on loan, and brought Yuto Nagatomo from Cesena as part of the deal that sent Davide Santon in the opposite direction, also on loan. Both Joel Obi and Nwankwo Obiora signed co-ownership by Parma, however Obi will remain with Inter and Nwankwo will spend the rest of the season with Parma. Inter also signed Marco Andreolli from Chievo in co-ownership, and will remain at Chievo the rest of the season.

Awards

italic: nominated

italic: nominated

Key dates

Squad information

First team in inter.it

Out on loan, co-ownership deals

Transfer

Confirmed transfers 2010–11

In

Total spending: €34.5 million

Out

Total income: €67,100,000

Net Income: €26,600,000

Friendlies

  Win   Draw   Loss

Club

Overview

Last updated: 20 April 2011
Source: Competitions

Supercoppa Italiana

Kickoff times are in CET.

  Win   Draw   Loss

League table

Updated to games played on 23 April 2011.
Source: lega-calcio.it (Italian)
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Results summary

Last updated: 22 May 2011.
Source: Internazionale Milano

Results by round

Last updated: 3 April 2011.
Source: Competitive Matches
Ground: A = Away; H = Home. Result: D = Draw; L = Loss; W = Win; P = Postponed.

Knockout phase

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Overall statistics

Appearances

Starting 11