Wednesday May 26, 2021
Master maker leaves the club
Conte is not in the mood for Inter’s austerity course
Antonio Conte leads Inter Milan to their first championship title in over ten years, but the collaboration ends a few days after the longed-for success: The master maker leaves the club at his own request, of course it’s about money. Above all about what the association wants to save.
Italy’s master coach Antonio Conte leaves Inter Milan. The association announced. With the 51-year-old, an agreement on the end of his contract had been made by mutual consent, the message said. The club, plagued by financial worries, has to save money, and several top stars are said to be up for sale. According to media reports, Conte did not want to participate.
According to Portuguese sources, Porto coach Sérgio Conceição is being discussed as his successor. The former professional has been negotiating with Inter for a few days, it was said about the idol of the fans. With the Nerazzuri in Serie A, Conte replaced Juventus Turin with superstar Cristiano Ronaldo after nine years. The team around the Belgian top scorer Romelu Lukaku was already the champions after the 34th matchday. After the last matchday of the season last weekend, Inter received the Scudetto.
Inter’s farewell announcement said: “The entire club would like to thank Antonio Conte for his exceptional work, culminating in winning the nineteenth Scudetto. Antonio Conte will remain in our club’s history forever.”
Is now the “opportunity” for real engagement?
Conte had only come to Internazionale as a trainer in 2019. Some experts saw him as an important factor in winning the Serie A championship, in which the team had long been a neck-and-neck race in the table with city rivals AC Milan for Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic. In the end there was the first championship title since 2010. Conte should now receive a severance payment. According to the “Gazzetta dello Sport”, it should amount to about half of his earnings, which were planned for the third year of his contract, which is actually valid until 2022.
Conte himself did not comment on his future plans. In November, the head coach said he had “several times” been on the verge of coaching Real Madrid. But he preferred to “postpone this opportunity”. There could indeed be a vacancy in Madrid soon. Coach Zinedine Zidane recently left his future at the Spanish top club open after missing the championship. “I’m not the most important thing,” said the Frenchman on Saturday after the season finale in La Liga on Movistar +: “I’ll talk to the club in the near future.”
Los Blancos had won their last game of the season against Villarreal 2-1 (0-1), but the title went to local rivals Atlético, who also won 2-1 (0-1) at relegated Real Valladolid. Most recently, Zidane had denied speculation about a decided departure from the record champions at the end of the season. Several Spanish media had reported that the former world-class player had informed his team of his departure. Zidane’s contract runs until 2022.
.