A fistful of goals

Ruben Sosa SCROLL TO READ STORIA N.95 / 110

His greatest memory at Inter was probably the 1994 UEFA Cup win against Salzburg. One year on from the triumph, he moved to Borussia Dortmund after making 104 appearances and scoring 50 goals with the Nerazzurri, 22 of which came in that first season. He had done enough to win the bet with the President Pellegrini.

For the Nerazzurri faithful, he became an idol straight away. One of the forward’s most dangerous weapons was his free-kick ability. They had an unpredictable trajectory and were almost always unstoppable for the goalkeepers as the left foot of Sosa became a real nightmare for them. Luca Bucci knew something about that when he had to pull the ball out of his net three times during a match between Inter and Parma in the 1993-94 season. The goalkeeper was beaten three times by Sosa who first scored with a header before finding the corner with two brilliant free kicks as the Nerazzurri won 3-2 at San Siro.

Ruben Sosa’s arrival at Inter was practically a bet. One between the Uruguayan player and the Club President Ernesto Pellegrini. The dangerous left-footed forward possessed great speed and he proposed to the Inter boss that he could pay him whatever he wanted for his services should he score fewer than 20 goals in the season. Beyond being a bet, it was a great personal challenge seeing that Ruben had chosen the Italian league precisely because, in his mind, it was the hardest to score in. After previously playing for Lazio, he joined Inter in 1992.

Ruben Sosa

Rubén Sosa Ardaiz (Montevideo, 25 April 1966) was an Inter forward from 1992 to 1995 after he was signed from Lazio. In a Nerazzurri shirt, he made 104 appearances and scored 50 goals. He won the UEFA Cup in 1994 after the final against Salzburg. In 1995, he moved to Germany with Borussia Dortmund. For Uruguay, he played 46 times and scored 19 goals, winning the Copa America twice in 1987 in Argentina and in 1995 on home soil in Uruguay.