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Football Club Internazionale Milano, widely referred to as Internazionale, and commonly known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy.
Inter is the only team to have always participated in the top division of Italian football since its debut in 1909, never being relegated to Serie B. Since 1947, Inter has shared the San Siro stadium, the largest stadium in Italy, with AC Milan, with whom it contests the long-standing Derby della Madonnina, one of the most widely followed rivalries in world football.
The club was founded in 1908 after a split within the Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club (now AC Milan), and won its first championship in 1910. Since its formation, the club has won 37 domestic trophies, including 20 league titles, nine Coppa Italia, and eight Supercoppa Italiana. From 2006 to 2010, the club won five successive league titles, equaling the all-time record at that time. They have won the European Cup/Champions League three times, their latest win in 2010 completed an unprecedented Italian seasonal treble, with Inter winning the Serie A and the Coppa Italia the same year. The club has also won three UEFA Cups, two Intercontinental Cups, and one FIFA Club World Cup. Inter is the only Italian club that won at least an official trophy in every decade since the foundation of the club in 1908.
Inter has the highest home game attendance in Italy and the fourth-highest attendance in Europe. Since May 2024, the club has been owned by American asset management company Oaktree Capital Management.
The club was founded on 9 March 1908 as Football Club Internazionale, when a group of players left the Milan Cricket and Football Club (now AC Milan) to form a new club because they wanted to accept more foreign players. The name of the club derives from the wish of its founding members to accept foreign players as well as Italians. The club won its first championship in 1910 and its second in 1920. The captain and coach of the first championship winning team was Virgilio Fossati, who was later killed in battle while serving in the Italian army during World War I.
One of the founders of Inter, a painter named Giorgio Muggiani, was responsible for the design of the first Inter logo in 1908. The first design incorporated the letters FCIM in the centre of a series of circles that formed the badge of the club. The basic elements of the design have remained constant even as finer details have been modified over the years. Starting from the 1999-2000 season, the original club crest was reduced in size, to create space for the addition of the club's name and foundation year at the upper and lower part of the logo respectively.
In 2007, the logo was returned to the pre-1999-2000 era. It was given a more modern look with a smaller Scudetto star and lighter colour scheme. This version was used until July 2014, when the club decided to undertake a rebranding. The most significant difference between the current and the previous logo is the omission of the star from other media except match kits.
Since its founding in 1908, Inter have almost always worn black and blue stripes, earning them the nickname Nerazzurri. According to the tradition, the colours were adopted to represent the nocturnal sky: in fact, the club was established on the night of 9 March, at 23:30; moreover, blue was chosen by Giorgio Muggiani because he considered it to be the opposite colour to red, worn by the Milan Cricket and Football Club rivals.
During the 1928-29 season, however, Inter were forced by Fascist regime to abandon their black and blue uniforms.
In 1928, Inter's name and philosophy made the ruling Fascist Party uneasy; as a result, during the same year the 20-year-old club was merged with Unione Sportiva Milanese: the new club was named Società Sportiva Ambrosiana after the patron saint of Milan. The flag of Milan (the red cross on white background) replaced the traditional black and blue.
In 1929, the black-and-blue jerseys were restored, and after World War II, when the Fascists had fallen from power, the club reverted to their original name.
In 2008, Inter celebrated their centenary with a red cross on their away shirt. The cross is reminiscent of the flag of their city, and they continue to use the pattern on their third kit.
In 2014, the club adopted a predominantly black home kit with thin blue pinstripes before returning to a more traditional design the following season.
Animals are often used to represent football clubs in Italy -the grass snake, called Biscione, represents Inter. The snake is a symbol for the city of Milan, appearing often in Milanese heraldry as a coiled viper with a man in its jaws. The symbol is present on the coat of arms of the House of Sforza (which ruled over Italy from Milan during the Renaissance period), the city of Milan, the historical Duchy of Milan (a 400-year state of the Holy Roman Empire) and Insubria (a historical region the city of Milan falls within). For the 2010-11 season, Inter's away kit featured the snake.
More information: Inter
il nero e l'azzurro sullo sfondo d'oro delle stelle.
Si chiamerà Internazionale,
perché noi siamo fratelli del mondo.
This wonderful night will give us the colours of our crest:
black and blue against a backdrop of stars.
It shall be called International,
because we are brothers of the world.
Giorgio Muggiani, 9 March 1908, Milan
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