His first few years at Inter saw the club do well but secure little success. In fact, between 1948 and 1952, the Nerazzurri finished second and third twice respectively, leaving Torino, Juventus and Milan each to pick up league titles. However, those years established the foundations for some great achievements. Masseroni appointed Alfredo Foni as coach back in the summer of 1952, who as a player had lifted the World Cup in 1938. Inter soon became unbeatable and won two successive league titles after a 13-year abstinence. He left the club in 1955 and was succeeded by Angelo Moratti, triggering the start of yet another great period for Inter.
Ambrosiana will now go back to only being called Internazionale.
It was 1942 and with Italy fighting in World War II, the league was at a standstill. Masseroni soon came around to the idea of owning Inter and not long after it became his life. His tenure with Inter made history for a number of reasons, some football related and some not. He was the man who in 1945 announced that the club would once again be called Internazionale after they’d previously been forced to adopt the name Ambrosiana for almost 15 years under the fascist regime. However, Masseroni was also committed to helping Inter triumph from a sporting perspective. He bought top international players such as Benito Lorenzi, Sweden’s Skoglund, the Dutchman Faas Wilkes and also Hungary’s Nyers.
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And to think that for many years football did not even interest him… His first real passion was cycling, taking into account that they were the years of Coppi and Bartali. As a businessman in the rubber industry, Carlo Rinaldo Masseroni had to be convinced to become Inter president, and the man to do so was Coni’s No.1 Rino Parenti.
