THE VITALS:

Team: Internazionale

Brand: Nike

Era: 2013-14 (Used for the 2013-14 Serie A season)

Name/Number: -

CONDITION: EXCELLENT

Sadly, I have doubts about the legitimacy of this shirt, as the Nike swoosh is in vinyl, and the sponsor has clearly been attempted to be re-glued and has consequently been left dog eared. Bar that however, the shirt shows very little signs of wear, and the badge is still perfect.

DIMENSIONS:

Size: Small

Pit to Pit Measurement: 19.5 inches

Shirt Length: 27.5 inches

Made by Nike in their ‘Dri-Fit’ range of shirts which they introduced in 2014; the dimensions of this shirt make this the consummate size small!

nd the vents on the side panels of the body also make an interesting addition, as do the vinyl crosses on the shoulders. 

DESCRIPTION:

Nike would continue with their series of experimental Internazionale home shirts in the 2013-14 season, this time replacing the classic blue with a dark navy; creating a mysterious black and navy expression of the ‘Nerazzurri’! Stylistically, this shirt is almost a hybrid model of the 2011-12 and 2012-13 season home shirts; especially following the use of the band collar and the thick band around the sleeve, even if the stripes have been restored to an even-keel split of medium bars. While Walter Mazzarri’s first season in charge would be remembered fairly fondly as they finished in 5^th place; this shirt will be remembered moreso for the host of club legends who claimed this as the last Inter home shirt they graced such as – Christian Chivu, Walter Samuel, Esteban Cambiasso, Diego Milito and last but not least; ‘Il Capitano’ Javier Zanetti who retired from the sport after 19 years with the club!  

THE SEASON:

Internazionale’s period of transition was presenting more growing pains than anyone could have expected as the club stumbled to 14 year low season finish as they finished in 9^th in 2012-13 and would not play any European football for the first time since the 1999-00 season. The situation would prompt Inter to procure Walter Mazzarri from Napoli to hopefully lead the club to greener pastures in 2013-14.

Antonio Cassano would represent a the highest profile departure in the summer of 2013, meanwhile, the club had already announced the signings of promising duo: Mauro Icardi and Ishak Belfodil, while there were also the arrivals of: Danilo D’Ambrosio, Rolando and Hugo Campagnaro who also followed Mazzarri from Napoli.

The new regime began with a 2-0 win over Genoa on 25/08/13 and Inter would go unbeaten in their opening 6 games of the season; winning 4 and drawing 2 – the latter included a 1-1 draw with Juventus on 14/09/13 where Mauro Icardi scored his first ever goal for the club. After recovering from the 3-0 defeat to Roma with 3 wins and 2 draws, the familiar pattern for the rest of the season would begin to present itself; namely the abundance of draws as the club drew 3 games in a row against Bologna, Sampdoria and Parma. Still, the year would end on a very high note as they defeated AC Milan on 22/12/13 in their final game of 2013 to sit in 5^th place.

2014 saw Inter lose further ground to the surrounding pack as they went without a victory in their first 5 league games of the new year. That barren spell would lend itself to a brilliant spell of 13 games where they lost just once, however, the 6 draws they played out during that run would impact their position in the table, furthermore, the defeat in the reverse fixture versus AC Milan on 04/05/14 would leave them 4 points 4^th place Fiorentina with just 2 games to spare. Inter would crush Lazio 4-1 in the penultimate game of the season in what was also Javier Zanetti’s final game for the club, and despite losing their final game of the season to Chievo; Internazionale would secure a more than respectable 5^th place finish to conclude the 2013-14 Serie A season.

After their semi-final appearance in the Coppa Italia last season, Inter would stumble to a disappointing Round of 16 exit against Udinese on 09/01/14. The 2013-14 season would continue to mark the end of the old guard from the Roberto Mancini and Jose Mourinho glory-days as: Christian Chivu, Walter Samuel, Esteban Cambiasso, Diego Milito and Javier Zanetti would all leave the club by the summer of 2014.

The notable players that season were:

Mauro Icardi, Rodrigo Palacio, Ishak Belfodil, Diego Milito, Hernanes, Ricky Alvarez, Mateo Kovacic, Saphir Tadir, Fredy Guarin, Esteban Cambiasso, Zdravko Kuzmanovic, Walter Samuel, Hugo Campagnaro, Andrea Ranocchia, Christian Chivu, Yuto Nagatomo, Juan Jesus, Danilo D’Ambrosio, Rolando, Alvaro Pereira, Jonathan, Samir Handanovic