INTERNACIONAL
THREE TIMES BRAZILIAN CHAMPIONS
Brazilian football is about skill,
excitement, drama and, above
all, passion.
And much of that passion derives
from the domestic rivalries of great,
neighbouring clubs; Sao Paulo FC
and Corinthians in Sao Paulo;
Flamengo and Fluminense in Rio;
and Internacional and Gremio in the
Gaucho capital of Porto Alegre.
Inter -never to be confused with
the Italian club, Internazionale of
Milan, who carry the same proud
nickname - are the dominant club
of the last 15 years of unified cham
pionship football in Brazil. Once
described as "sleeping giants" they
have, over the years, produced a
string of outstanding players and
coaches to earn a consistency no
other club has matched.
Not Flamengo. Not Santos. Not Sao
Paulo. Not Fluminense. And not even
Inter's traditional rivals, Gremio.
Yet it was precisely because of op
position to an international ap
proach that the club was set up in 1910.
At a time when immigrant workers
and well-to-do students were
dominating the game in Brazil, Inter's
founding fathers decided that their
club would be solely for Brazilians.
It was one of the historic steps
along the path to prevent racism
gaining a grip on Brazilian football.
And it did Inter no harm. In the years
between 1927 and 1984 they won
their state championship, in souther
ly Rio Grande do Sul, no fewer than
29 times - a record five titles more
than Gremio. But it is only in the past
12 years that this tradition has been
converted into success on a national
and international basis.
To understand means explaining
the nature of Brazilian domestic
competition.
Brazil is such a huge country that for
many years a national championship
was an impossibility because of
distance and travel costs. So the most
important tournaments became those
based on the major cities - above all
on Rio de Janeiro (the Carioca cham
pionship) and Sao Paulo (the Paulista
tournament). Simultaneously the other
states ran their provincial champion
ships - with Inter dominating in Rio
Grande do Sul.
Inter have always been a pro
gressive outfit and it was natural that
the advancement of air travel would
see them lead a campaign deman
ding a "proper" national champion
ship which was ultimately launch
ed in 1971.
So now the Brazilian football
season is split into two halves: the
first half is taken up with a controver
sial and unwieldy national cham
pionship, the second half by the
traditional old state leagues.
But, providing added weight to the
value of success in the national
championship is the fact that the two
finalists are awarded Brazil's two
available places each year in the all-
important, money-spinning South
American club cup - an event
which stands comparison with
Europe as a cross between the Euro
pean Champions' Cup and the UEFA
Cup.
Inter's first success was in 1975
when they beat Cruzeiro of Belo
Horizonte by 1-0 in the final, decisive
match before a crowd of 82,568 in In
ter's own Beira-Rio stadium in Porto
Alegre.
That was probably the best team in
Inter's history - coached by ex
perienced Rubens Minelli and in
cluding star names such as veteran
goalkeeper Manga, Chilean centre-
back Elias Figueroa and his defen
sive partners Mario Marinho and
Mauro Galvao, star midfielders Paul
Roberto Falcao and Paulo Cesar
Carpeggiani, World Cup right
winger Valdomiro and 16-goal top
scoring centre-forwad, Flavio.
A year later Internacional were
back again, this time beating Corin
thians by 2-0 in the showdown.
Valdomiro and new centre-forward
Dario scored the vital goals while
Figueroa carried off the Footballer of
the Year award.
In 1979 Inter were champions a
third time and this time they forged
their first starring role at South
American cup level. In the first
round in the 1980 tournament a 1-0
victory over Velez Sarsfield of Argen
tina in Buenos Aires was the first
away success scored by a Brazilian
team in the competition in an
astonishing 17 years.
Inter were ideally equipped to
take on - and beat - the world
about them with Falcao an inspira
tional midfielder and Enio Andrade
a shrewd coach. But after Inter went
down 0-0, 0-1 in the 1980 Cup final to
Nacional of Uruguay all their good
work counted for little in the eyes of
the impatient torcida (Brazilian fans).
Falcao was sold to Italian club Roma,
Andrade was replaced as coach and
president Jose Asmuz was ousted by
boardroom rivals upset at the sale of
Falcao.
The early 1980s saw a host of
changes at both administrative and
playing levels. Out on the pitch fine
footballers such as Batista, Cleo,
Rodrigues, Neto, Lela and the expen
sive Uruguayan, Ruben Paz, came
and - mostly - went. Paz was the last
to leave, sold to French club Racing
of Paris after last year's World Cup.
Batista had gone was sold in 1982 to
neighbours Gremio for a domestic
record of £500,000 and, as if this were
not enough, Paraguayan goalkeeper
Jose Benitez suffered a serious injury
which caused temporary paralysis.
In the first six months of 1981 Inter
went through no fewer than three
team managers. Mario Juliato, who
had succeeded Andrade, lasted just
55 days. Former Inter player Claudio
Duarte lasted only a few weeks
longer before being replaced, in
turn, by Sergio Clerici. Later,
coaching duties fell to Ernesto
Guedes and then to former Milan
star, Dino Sani.
It is a measure of the topsy-turvy
state of Brazilian football that in 1984,
the first year in four that they had not
finished top of the Gaucho cham
pionship, Inter supplied no fewer
than 11 members of the national
squad which finished runners-up to
France in the Olympic Games in Los
Angeles (although the final, which
Brazil lost 2-0, was actually played in
Pasadena).
By now more youngsters were
emerging. Goalkeeper Taffarel and
forward Balalo - especially
dangerous, in the Brazilian tradition,
with free kicks - were stars of the na
tional team which beat Spain 1-0 in
Moscow to win the 1985 World Youth
Cup.
The arrival of the new generation
was none too soon. Inter had fallen
heavily into debt and last summer
sold many of their best players - for
wards Kita, Ademir and Silvinho
apart from Ruben Paz, as well as star
centre-back Ruben Galvao.
Thus Inter do not possess any of the
current great names of Brazilian foot
ball. But all the evidence suggests that
in a couple of years' time - maybe at
the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy -
some of the players who are now vir
tual unknowns could be not only Inter
nacional, but international, idols!
