They all sing for him. The song which is now one of the hits of the Nerazzurri fans exalts Hakan Calhanoglu and mocks Milan, who let him leave on a free transfer in the summer of 2021. When Marotta, Ausilio and Baccin, assisted by Inzaghi, were very good at taking him to replace Eriksen, who suffered cardiac arrest at the European Championship. The Turk is no longer the attacking player that the then Rossonero sporting director Massimiliano Mirabelli had brought to Italy in 2017 to give the Devil an injection of goals and assists: Calha has transformed, on the intuition of the Piacenza coach, first into midfielder and finally as director. Now, in front of the defence, he is one of the best on the Old Continent, but he hasn’t lost his feeling for scoring as with today’s brace he has reached 13 goals in the league (15 in the whole of 2023-24). It’s his career record: pulverized 11 with Hamburg in the 2013-14 Bundesliga. The last midfielder to reach 13 in Serie A was Atalanta’s Mario Pasalic in 2021-22, while no Inter player has reached these heights since Matthaus (16) in 1990-91. This is why number 20 smiles like and more than the others: he had never won a championship and he did it as an absolute protagonist. Better than this…
SO MUCH JOY
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After Ferrieri Caputi Calhanoglu’s final whistle, he took part in the tour of the pitch with his teammates, then expressed all the joy he had inside at this moment: “There’s a great atmosphere here and it shows. Inter for me is everything: it raised my value and I owe everything to this team and this club.” A true proof of love for the Nerazzurri colours, to which it is no coincidence that he has been linked, after the renewal of his contract, until 2027. “Today was a beautiful day – he continued – and I didn’t expect the two goals, of having so much fun in such a beautiful stadium. It’s all thanks to the fans. My children always ask me when they can go on the pitch, they’re happy, they always listen to the chants…”.
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PENALTY
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Calhanoglu scored the tenth penalty out of ten in the league this season and, since arriving in Italy, he has never missed from eleven metres: he converted three out of three with Milan and seventeen out of ten-seven with Inter. “The secret of beating penalties? Concentration. I never want to make mistakes and when the opportunity arises I want to put it in. The secret is to work and believe in it. I wanted Lautaro to kick it today (it’s no coincidence that he gave the ball to Toro , ed.), but he told me to shoot it and so I went to the spot. It’s yet another demonstration that this is a united group, on and off the pitch: we’re always together, we have fun at all times, we give everything to each other. for the other. The celebrations? I don’t make a fuss… I want to stay calm because I will play again. It was a spontaneous thing and it was a beautiful gesture for our president too and confirmed that he is always close to us: he calls us and writes to us.
