It’s been two years sine Marco Materazzi hung up his boots. Most famed as the man who managed to make the coolest man in football, Zinedine Zidane, lose his cool and be sent off in extra time during the 2006 World Cup Final. Materazzi had been a mainstay in Inter’s defence for close to ten years making nearly 250 appearances. According to former Inter boss Jose Mourinho, Matterazzi was one of the first names on his team sheet during his three years in charge, which included the treble winning season of 2009/10. Matterazzi was outstanding as Inter knocked out favourites and defending champions Barcelona in the semi-final before beating Bayern Munich 2-0 in the Champions League Final at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
Matterazzi was a substitute in the final, brought on in the final moments to see out the result. He won five Serie A titles, four Coppa Italia titles and one Champions League title with Inter. He also won fourty-one caps for the Azzurri and scored two goals including the equalizer in that World Cup Final with France in Berlin, which ended 1-1 after extra time before Italy came through on penalties.
The problem as far as Inter fans are concerned is that in the two years since he retired, they have never really replaced him. It seems that they believe they now will after the announcement this week that they expect to sign Marco Andreolli, a centre back with Chievo Verona, on a free transfer in the summer, with the deal tied up this coming week. Andreolli began his youth career with Padova before switching to Inter at the age of 17 in 2003.
In his two years as a full professional with the San Siro club, he only made seven appearances before switching to AS Roma in a deal that brought Christian Chivu to Inter. In his three years at the Stadio Olimpico, he made just 14 appearances, scoring just the once in a period that included loan spells at both Vicenza and Sassuolo.
In May of 2010 he made it known to the Roma heirachy that he was looking for more playing time and as a result made the move to Verona to sign for Chievo. In the following January, Inter bought back half his contract from Chievo to half-own him, but subsequently sold it back to the Stadio Bentegodi outfit for a lot less than they had paid for it in the June of 2011. Andreolli has played nearly 70 times for Chievo so far and has been constantly linked in the previous two transfers windows with moves to Juventus, Inter and Milan.
He has linked up well in the heart of ‘the Gialloblu’ defence with a number of different partners including Bostjan Cesar, Dario Dainelli and new loan signing Francesco Acerbi who has previously played with Andreolli at Chievo. It seems the club have signed Acerbi on loan from Genoa with the view to signing him permanently in the summer as Andreolli’s replacement.
Andreolli has also made twenty-four appearances for the Azzurri’s under-21 side during his spells at both Inter and Roma and hopes that by returning to the San Siro club, he can realise his dream of getting a full call up by boss Cesare Prandelli. Only time will tell.
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