{"id":3433,"date":"2026-01-23T16:34:57","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T16:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.matteocoachperformance.it\/?p=3433"},"modified":"2026-01-23T16:34:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T16:34:57","slug":"inter-icon-javier-zanetti-shares-memorable-first-jose-mourinho-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.matteocoachperformance.it\/?p=3433","title":{"rendered":"Inter icon Javier Zanetti shares memorable first Jose Mourinho call"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Inter vice-president Javier Zanetti has spoken at length about his illustrious time at the club, which spans a staggering three decades.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In an in-depth interview with Corriere dello Sport, the Nerazzurri legend spoke about a number of topics, including Jose Mourinho and current head coach Cristian Chivu.<\/p>\n<p>Inter are in a good place at present, sitting top of the Serie A table, in the Champions League playoff spots and in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals.<\/p>\n<p>The Nerazzurri are still in contention for a treble, which Mourinho famously won in the 2009\/10 season.<\/p>\n<h2>Javier Zanetti recalls being made Inter captain by Jose Mourinho in first phone call to Argentine icon<\/h2>\n<p>Javier Zanetti joined Inter as a player in 1995 and played for the Nerazzurri until his retirement in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>The Argentine made over 600 appearances and worked under a staggering 28 head coaches at Inter.<\/p>\n<p>When it came to his favourite, Zanetti went with Jose Mourinho, who famously achieved the treble 16 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Zanetti also recalled the first time Mourinho called him, a phone conversation he says will never forget.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMourinho, of course, always stays with me,\u201d said Zanetti. \u201cWe did something unforgettable and maybe unrepeatable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was also Gigi (Simoni), who is unfortunately no longer with us. Simoni was like a father, he made everything simple.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJose, on the other hand, was a leader, he was really convincing, persuasive. I still remember our first phone call.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u26ab\ufe0f\ud83d\udd35 Javier Zanetti at Inter:<\/p>\n<p>UEFA Champions League \ud83c\udfc6<br \/>UEFA Cup \ud83c\udfc6<br \/>Serie A \ud83c\udfc6\ud83c\udfc6\ud83c\udfc6\ud83c\udfc6\ud83c\udfc6<br \/>Club World Cup \ud83c\udfc6<br \/>Coppa Italia \ud83c\udfc6\ud83c\udfc6\ud83c\udfc6\ud83c\udfc6<\/p>\n<p>Happy birthday, <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/javierzanetti?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@javierzanetti<\/a>! \ud83e\udd73 <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NghRvoBKLt\">pic.twitter.com\/NghRvoBKLt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChampionsLeague\/status\/1557245610012446721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 10, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIt was June, I was returning to Argentina and had a stopover at Fiumicino. At one point, I received a call from a Portuguese number.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018It\u2019s Jose Mourinho, I\u2019ve just signed for Inter, you\u2019re going to be my captain. Apologies if I don\u2019t speak Italian very well\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe did speak it very well. Direct, loyal, an incredible coach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mourinho is currently at Benfica, where he recently said he \u201ccould coach Juventus\u201d ahead of their Champions League clash.<\/p>\n<h2>Cristian Chivu impresses Javier Zanetti with his leadership<\/h2>\n<p>Zanetti also gave a strong verdict on Cristian Chivu, the former Inter defender now tasked with leading the team.<\/p>\n<p>They made 159 appearances together, the first coming in 2007 and the last in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>Both are Inter legends and, luckily for the fans, their association with the Nerazzurri continues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCristian is an intelligent man, very prepared and a good motivator,\u201d Zanetti said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI listen to him when he speaks to the team, he always gets through to the guys.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe always looks for a strong performance, which is what Inter have always done, even against Arsenal, the strongest team in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe deserved more points against Atletico and Liverpool, we\u2019re missing those two points.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.footitalia.com\/news\/javier-zanetti-on-what-cristian-chivu-is-really-like-at-inter-as-jose-mourinho-admission-made\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inter vice-president Javier Zanetti has spoken at length about his illustrious time at the club, which spans a staggering three decades. In an in-depth interview with Corriere dello Sport, the Nerazzurri legend spoke about a number of topics, including Jose Mourinho and current head coach Cristian Chivu. Inter are in a good place at present, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spotlight-sugli-azzurri"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.matteocoachperformance.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.matteocoachperformance.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.matteocoachperformance.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.matteocoachperformance.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.matteocoachperformance.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.matteocoachperformance.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.matteocoachperformance.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.matteocoachperformance.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.matteocoachperformance.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.matteocoachperformance.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}