Roberto Boninsegna has remembered Sandro Mazzola with the voice of a former teammate and lifelong Inter supporter, returning to the bonds formed in the club’s youth ranks and to the choices that repeatedly shaped both their careers.
The decision
For Boninsegna, Mazzola was far more than a celebrated figure of Inter’s great years. They played hundreds of matches together when young, with Mazzola operating behind the forwards and Boninsegna reading the passes that could turn into goals. Their understanding also brought a Viareggio Tournament triumph in 1962, then regarded as one of the leading international events for youth sides.
Their paths soon separated. Mazzola became a permanent member of Inter’s senior squad and one of the leading players in the successes of the Angelo Moratti and Helenio Herrera era. Boninsegna, judged not yet ready for the first team, was sent through a sequence of loans at Prato, Potenza and Varese before moving to Cagliari.
He was happy in Sardinia, where he developed a productive connection with Gigi Riva, but the desire to play in Serie A for Inter had never disappeared. Three seasons later, as Inter entered a rebuilding period under president Ivanoe Fraizzoli following the end of the Herrera-Moratti cycle, Mazzola intervened during an Italy training camp.
Mazzola asked Boninsegna whether he would return to Milan if Inter reached an agreement with Cagliari. Boninsegna’s answer was immediate: he would have gone back at once. He later regarded Mazzola as the key figure behind the operation, describing him as the most influential and respected player within the club.
The transfer was one of the notable deals of that summer. Cagliari received Angelo Domenghini, Poli, Sergio Gori and a reported 600 million lire. The Sardinian side would go on to win the Scudetto, while Boninsegna found the Inter shirt he had wanted since childhood. A year later he won the league with Inter and finished as Serie A’s top scorer.
Boninsegna never forgot Mazzola’s part in bringing him home. Their friendship, however, also carried the memory of a later departure that neither man could fully prevent. In an interview this August, Mazzola apologised for failing to stop Boninsegna’s move from Inter to Juventus in exchange for Pietro Anastasi.
Boninsegna appreciated the apology, while recognising the club’s reasoning. Anastasi was younger and Inter had made its calculation, but Boninsegna had tried to resist joining the club regarded as Inter’s principal rival. In that period, he said, players did not have the authority to choose their destination once a club had decided on a transfer.
Anastasi had already appeared at important moments in Boninsegna’s international career. He replaced Boninsegna at the 1968 European Championship after the Inter forward received an 11-match domestic suspension. Two years later, Boninsegna was called into Italy’s World Cup squad in Mexico after Anastasi suffered a serious injury during the final training session before the tournament.
The 1976 exchange therefore completed an unusual sequence. Boninsegna joined Juventus while Anastasi went to Inter, and Boninsegna’s time in Turin proved highly successful: two Scudetti, a UEFA Cup and a Coppa Italia followed.
That success did not erase the sadness of leaving Inter, but it gave Boninsegna another reason to look back at Mazzola without bitterness. Mazzola’s late admission that he had not defended him strongly enough with Fraizzoli was received as an honest gesture. In his final reflections on their shared history, Boninsegna said he was deeply moved to realise that he had been the last former Inter player Mazzola spoke about publicly.
