Born in the eighties: Inter Milan's veterans have final chance to write Champions League history

Independent

a day ago

Without cancer, Francesco Acerbi once said, he would have retired years ago. Perhaps when he was 28, which would have meant his career ended in 2016. Instead, here he is in 2025, preparing for his second Champions League final, maybe forever going to be the last footballer born in the 1980s to play in one. Or one of the last, anyway, given that his Inter Milan teammates Yann Sommer, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marko Arnautovic were also born when the Berlin Wall was still intact and Matteo Darmian before the 1990s arrived.
Acerbi can capture the imagination, both with his personal narrative and as an emblem of a style of Italian defending which can feel timeless. The Inter Milan veteran, who has subdued Erling Haaland with his old-school man-marking, turned implausible goalscorer in the 93rd-minute of the semi-final second leg against Barcelona. It was a striker's finish from a man who spent a largely unglamorous career honing his trade of stopping strikers. The belated peak could come at 37 for the testicular cancer survivor. Acerbi is the second oldest scorer in Champions League knockout history, after only Ryan Giggs. At 23, however, he was still in Serie B. He spent many of his years of supposed prime at Sassuolo, dodging relegation then qualifying for Europe. It was the appointment of his Lazio manager Simone Inzaghi at Inter that took him to Milan.
For Sommer, perhaps the man of the tie in the spectacular semi-final, the bulk of his prime came at Borussia Monchengladbach. Another who has excelled may wonder if chance played its part in his rise: Manuel Neuer broke a leg skiing, meaning Bayern Munich needed a goalkeeper. And then, when Neuer was nearing fitness again, Inter needed a replacement for Andre Onana. Sommer has proved the cut-price upgrade.
Cosmopolitan as the multilingual Mkhitaryan is, his might have seemed a more conventional career trajectory. He went from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester United, scoring in a Europa League final win for them. Instead, his best days may be among his last. He scored in a Champions League semi-final in 2023; but for the most marginal of offsides, he would have done so again in 2025, away at Barcelona.
Darmian was at Old Trafford with Mkhitaryan. When he left, approaching his 30th birthday, it was for £1.4m and to Parma; it could have been the prelude to a winding down and a forgettable descent into retirement. Yet Inter's capacity to pick up ageing and unfashionable players – sometimes, as also in Acerbi's case – first on loan meant he made it to San Siro.
Then there is the oddity of Arnautovic's career. A Champions League winner with Inter in 2010, albeit when making only three appearances in the season and not even being on the bench for the final, his route back to the Nerazzurri took in Werder Bremen, Stoke, West Ham, Shanghai Port and Bologna. The player Jose Mourinho once said had the attitude of a child is now a footballing pensioner.
For Inter's old guard, it could seem a last chance. The contingent of thirty-somethings also includes Hakan Calhanoglu, Piotr Zielinski, Mehdi Taremi, Joaquin Correa and Stefan de Vrij. Logically, the end is nigh for several of them, and perhaps the team, although the same may have been said in 2023, when Edin Dzeko started the final at 37.
If Inter can regenerate with other old-timers, and their ages have helped them pick up a few bargains, there is a legitimate question about how long this side can challenge for. They were probably underestimated at the start of the season, the fixation on Real Madrid and Manchester City meaning the importance of Inter's defensive excellence and Inzaghi's tactical nous were overlooked.
But opportunities to win the Champions League are limited. Inter can testify: last year seemed a fine one, when they landed in the weaker half of the draw, only to be knocked out by Atletico Madrid on penalties in the last 16. There is no guarantee they will be in the reckoning again next year, and not merely because of suggestions the Saudi Pro-League will tempt Inzaghi with a massive offer.
There may be comparisons with other ageing groups: there was the sense Chelsea's chance had gone as John Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Ashley Cole and Petr Cech moved into their thirties. They instead won it in 2012, when logic suggested they would not. When Carlo Ancelotti's already experienced AC Milan lost the 2005 final from 3-0 up, it seemed that Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta would never add to their sizeable collection of winners' medals. But they did, two years later, with a considerable contribution from an Inzaghi: Pippo, Simone's still more prolific brother, scored twice.
Yet they could look at the last decade, at Atletico Madrid and Juventus teams who each reached two finals in three seasons in the 2010s. Neither won one and no crowning glory awaited them.
Or their veterans may recall a final that some of the Paris Saint-Germain team may be too young to really remember. In 2010, Mourinho's elderly Inter made their experience an asset. They conquered Europe. And if decline soon followed, their last hurrah may offer inspiration to a group who were already professional footballers in their twenties then. Now they could be called the unlikely lads. More accurately, though, they are the unlikely old lags.