Julio Cesar was always like that. A Brazilian partying off the pitch but on the pitch he was so strong he seemed to be from the European school. He made hundreds of saves in seven years at Inter. None of them however would match his most epic Inter moment which was his fingertip save from Messi in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Barcelona. If not for that, the treble would never have been spoken of and Mourinho wouldn’t have gone down in legend either.
It was the evening of 17th May 2009, Inter had just become the champions of Italy before going out onto the pitch as Milan lost in Udine. The next day’s match between Inter and Siena was therefore essentially irrelevant. Because of this, the party was breaking out among the players who were ready to run to piazza Duomo and celebrate with the Nerazzurri fans. But, Mourinho is a perfectionist and he’s preparing for the match against the Tuscan side in order to preserve the unbeaten home record. It was the Brazilian goalkeeper Julio Cesar who convinced the Special One to go. “He arrived in an excited state,” said Mourinho after. “I thought to myself: ‘I wonder what state he’ll be in the middle of the night’. He threatened me. With my head kept low, I begrudgingly went with them while worrying about Sunday’s game.” The result: A party all night long and continuing through to the following day as Siena were beaten 3-0.
Mourinho was more than a father for me at Inter. In just two years, Mourinho and his staff made us win everything. Mourinho’s Inter will always remain in the heart of Inter fans.
It was only midnight but the sense of euphoria was already sky-rocketing, but it was also one of those evenings where you couldn’t let yourself go fully. Julio was exhausted but he found the strength to threaten him “If you don’t come celebrate with us, you won’t win another title.” The figures in that scene were two icons of the most successful Inter sides of recent years: Julio Cesar and José Mourinho.
