Zanetti: “I want to use my experience while growing with Inter”

MILAN – Javier Zanetti gave an exclusive interview to Sky Sport 24 yesterday in which he discussed his future. Which will of course be at Inter.

Speaking from the top of Palazzo Lombardia, the seat of the regional government where a ceremony was held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Inter’s historic European Cup victory in Vienna, the former Nerazzurri skipper explained: “At the moment there are other people more capable than me who can deal with certain things. What I want to do right now is use my experience to fly this club’s flag while learning every day a bit more about the various areas where I can help out. Learn English? I was already doing that. I think it’s important for your personal growth as a manager, even though my precise role hasn’t been decided yet. I’ll remain a part of Inter, we’ll see what happens.”

On the possibility of seeing “his” captain’s armband on Andrea Ranocchia: “Andrea knows what it means to wear the Nerazzurri jersey. Personally I think he could be the right man for the job. He’s always available to listen to everyone. I believe he could do it very well.”

It was then put to Zanetti that it would have been strange for him to play on the same pitch as Tom Ince, having played alongside his father Paul all those years ago, and the journalist noted that the tie Tom was wearing when he arrived in Milan was similar to Zanetti’s on his first day: The Argentine replied: “Yeah, I set a trend there! I still have that tie, it’s in a museum I have with lots of other memorabilia at my house. I was very good friends with Paul. I remember when we used to meet up with other team-mates and he would play around with the ball. I have a great relationship with him: he always used to say I was his little brother.”

Finally, Zanetti commented on the suggestion that the club may decide to retire the number 4 shirt: “There’s talk within the club of that happening and if it were to happen it would be a huge honour for me, but I don’t want to push it at all.”