Anyone Joao Mario?
Can you tell when it was “the so-called Joao Mario”?Or when the Suning entity announced his arrival at Inter Milan paying 44 million euros to Sporting Lisbon to sign him?
Portugal’s foreigner has failed amid takeovers, hirings and firings, and the team’s review from ‘Inter’s joke’ to ‘look who’s back in the Champions League, the trophy winning Inter’. Following loan spells to Lokomotiv Moscow, West Ham and former club Sporting, his contract was terminated through Inter in 2021. Joao Mario has become Ciao Mario, and he goes to Benfica where, with Roger Schmidt this season, at least statistically, he is one of the most productive midfielders in Europe.
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The 30-year-old is back in the Champions League quarter-finals for one moment in a row and has scored in five consecutive European matches, adding consequences against Paris Saint-Germain and, to the joy of Inter fans, Juventus at the Allianz. Stadium, where he put his ears to the cup to hear the whistles better. Joao Mario has scored 21 goals and recorded seven assists in 31 Primeira Liga and Champions League games (not counting qualification) this season, an astonishing return for a midfielder
Depending on how tonight’s Champions League knockout match unfolds in Porto for Inter, you can think of a meeting like the last eight. You may believe that there may be a nostalgic feeling of “what could have been” when seeing Joao Mario. Blossoming backward at this level, as he did with his 2017 compatriot Gabriel Barbosa, who showed Inter that it would be worth sticking with having won the Copa Libertadores twice at Flamengo.
A real grievance is felt through Sporting, who were not the most angry with Inter when the Italians terminated Joao Mario’s contract and saw him walk straight into the arms of Benfica, their Lisbon rivals.
Last summer, they filed a €30 million ($26. 5 million; $32 million) lawsuit against Inter for failing to trigger a “pre-emptive right to purchase clause” included in the original sales contract “on the occasion of the player’s transfer to any other club” in the Portuguese league. Inter does not blame the club for contractual breaches and “will take measures in appropriate places to protect its interests. “
It’s a small detail that will have caught the attention of any potential Inter client or investor browsing the club’s most recent accounts. Some of the biggest clubs in the world have been wondering: is my club for sale or not?That’s right?
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Manchester United and Liverpool enthusiasts have been grappling with this for months. In the case of Inter, president Steven Zhang, who is the same age as Joao Mario, has publicly stated that his club is not on the market. At least his position in late October after Inter qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League, at Barcelona’s expense. But Raine Group, the trfinishy bank for buying football clubs since the Chelsea auction, is carrying out a sale procedure and there are some potential bidders sniffing.
Participating in a retort on the Italian football podcast, SPAL owner Joe Tacopina, the New York lawyer who has Donald Trump as a client, joked: “If I challenged him (Trump) and said you’ll probably never win anything with Inter, he’s probably going to buy Inter then, so maybe that’s the decision.
Seriously, Inter is a tempting opportunity. There is a price of prestige and rarity in being part of a select organization of “legacy” clubs. Inter have won the Champions League as many times as Manchester United (three) and more recently also (2010). ). They are the only team in Italy to have achieved the treble and, now that COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, the club is drawing massive crowds to San Siro, averaging over 70,000 according to the game with millions of enthusiasts worldwide and over 20 million followers on social media. In terms of brand, the original concept of the club – Internazionale, brothers of the global – goes beyond Italy.
Two years after the end of exclusive talks between Inter and personal equity organisation BC Partners, football club valuations have only skyrocketed, with the certainly exclusive circumstance surrounding the £2. 3 billion sale of Chelsea setting a new benchmark. In Italy, the watermark was set through Inter’s “cousins”, AC Milan, which came out for 1. 2 billion euros last summer. RedBird Capital needed a dealer loan from hedge fund Elliott to complete the acquisition, which, in terms of fees, was the most profitable on the market, a value that would be difficult to succeed in nine months later.
The world economy has changed. Inflationary pressures are stronger, interest rates are higher, cash is more expensive. In the context of Serie A, the sale of Milan is a challenge.
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Forbes considers the value of the club to be 942 million euros; at first glance, that’s not bad for Suning given that he paid 270 million euros for the club in 2016.
But that’s not how it works. As CEO Giuseppe Marotta continues to say to justify the club’s new path to sustainability, Inter’s owners have invested more than €700 million, a figure possibly reaching by adding the value acquired and the €549 million of shareholder financing. The club is the maximum indebted in Italy, which is vital because it is taken into account in any possible sale. Take, for example, the €415 million Inter bond refinanced until 2027 right now last year. Interest went from 4. 875% when silver was reasonable to 6. 75%, which is still a higher rate than if they had to move to the market now.
The bonus is a component of Inter’s overall liabilities, which amounts to €871 million in the club’s final books.
This raises the question of how the current owner can expect to make a return, especially when Grand Tower, the Luxembourg-based holding company through which Suning controls Inter, secured a €275 million loan from Oaktree Capital Management to cover the investment gap during COVID-19. The loan has an interest rate of 12% and matures on May 20, 2024. If he doesn’t return it, Oaktree keeps the keys to the club.
The deal acts as a safety net for Inter and, if that happens, would echo Elliott’s recovery of Milan after Li Yonghong defaulted on his debt to the fund in 2017. Judging by Zhang’s comments at Inter’s annual shareholders’ meeting in October: “The commitment for us is long-term; the long term is transparent since we took over the club”: He doesn’t expect that to happen even though Suning himself bailed out as part of a bailout through the local government and Alibaba in 2021 and Inter’s parent company, last summer, won a subpoena from China Construction Bank after Zhang lost a case in Hong Kong. making him liable for a debt of $255 million.
Unsurprisingly, Suning’s investment in Inter, explained The Athletic more intensely here, has declined since the pandemic.
Inter posted record revenues in 2022 of 440 million euros, but still suffered a loss of 140 million euros despite the sale of Achraf Hakimi to PSG and Romelu Lukaku to Chelsea, in addition to achieving the knockout stages of the Champions League. The team is the biggest in Serie A – Friday’s starting XI opposite Spezia had an average age of almost 31 – and, having lost scudetto winner Ivan Perisic to Tottenham Hotspur and Milan Skriniar (to PSG this summer) for nothing, Inter have 8 other players, adding captain Samir Handanovic. Stefan de Vrij, Danilo D’Ambrosio and Edin Dzeko, without a contract this summer.
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The agreements of Alessandro Bastoni, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Hakan Calhanoglu are on the rise in 2024. Then there are the loans to consider. Lukaku is ready to return to Chelsea and the €20 million he charges for a year’s rent is barely worth it, having only scored one league goal this season. Decisions will also have to be made about characteristics to point to Francesco Acerbi. and Raoul Bellanova.
Inter sporting director Piero Ausilio hopes to announce more renewals, such as Calhanoglu’s, to stick to those of Lautaro Martinez, Marcelo Brozovic and Nicolo Barella. But the future of so many players is up in the air that it looks like the team will want big investment this summer, whether it’s from Suning or a new owner, who will likely look at those who move expenses to price.
To complicate matters further, the strict financial Fair Play agreement imposed by UEFA, so the maximum money will likely have to be cashed out through the player exchange. However, how do you do that in the midst of all expiring contracts?World Cup-winning striker Martinez is Inter’s most valuable player, and Denzel Dumfries, who has been connected to the Premier League, has started seven of Inter’s last 11 league games on the bench, which will do little to pique interest or price in him.
There is still TV cash to fall back on (although it remains to be noted that upcoming domestic and foreign tenders for Serie A rights are recovering from the 12% drop last time). Even then, Inter is on the hunt for a new sponsor for the front of the shirt after DigitalBits, the cryptocurrency company that committed to paying the club €80 million over 3 years, has failed to pay €24 million, as well as other functionality bonuses.
That’s because Inter canceled cash it may not collect from Chinese sponsors. Although unfortunate and embarrassing, Inter continue to wear the DigitalBits logo on the team’s jerseys, they will soon be replaced as, one imagines, the naming rights to Appiano Gentile’s education ground, which expired when the Suning deal arrived last summer.
As for 90% of clubs in Italy, a new stadium would replace the game. Athletic explained why this factor has maintained the intensity of Serie A here. Almost 4 years ago, the two Milan clubs announced plans to partially demolish San Siro, erect a new court called La Catedral and regenerate the domain around it.
The pandemic, mayoral elections and red tape have slowed him down. Mayor Beppe Sala also provoked a furious reaction from Inter, when he advised in 2021 that “until Inter specifically clarify their fate,” the task would be on hold. Inter discovered his comments “offensive” and “disrespectful”. Once the people came out of COVID-19 and Sala was re-elected, things started moving again.
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But frustration with the progress of the snail, the ease with which politicians militarize sentimentality around San Siro for their own benefit, and the replacement of property in Milan have caused a rupture. Instead of sharing a stadium and the burden of building it with Inter, Milan has the strength to pass it and has looked to Sesto San Giovanni and, more recently, La Maura, the former racecourse, a kilometre from the San Siro.
Live entertainment has been the focus of Milan’s new owner, Gerry Cardinale, who helped bring to life the Cowboys’ stadium assignment in Dallas and the renovation of Yankees Stadium in New York. If its control team can avoid bureaucracy, Milan hopes it can deliver the most productive stadium experience in continental Europe and monetize it to help close the gap with the Champions League’s elite and leave its Serie A rivals in dust.
Inter say they were not surprised by Milan’s sudden turn away from the cathedral, but chief executive Alessandro Antonello admitted “what surprised us that we were working together on a project”.
He added: “We have a Plan B that protects the interests of the club and the fans. “The precise appearance of Plan B is uncertain, not least because the concept of modernizing the existing San Siro layout had been discarded in the procedure it led. to the cathedral, as it represents too many prices for few benefits.
“Milan is looking at La Maura, but I still haven’t found out where Inter is,” Sala said.
La Gazzetta dello Sport believes it is in Assago, at the end of the green line of the Milan metro. It remains to be seen how Inter’s current owners finance a new stadium. Still, plans to build one, if deemed realistic, would make the club hotter for a buyer. With the Super League on the horizon, this is where much of Milanesi’s expansion lies.
For now, the point that quickly looms is a big week in Inter’s campaign.
Friday’s loss to Spezia cast doubt on Simone Inzaghi’s long career beyond this season. Inter’s dismal record away from home – only Salernitana and Cremonese have conceded more goals away from home – and their habit of slipping in front of groups at the back have undermined Inzaghi, even as the team is currently in Serie A, until the semi-ultimate. ultimate of the Coppa Italia and can triumph in the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the first time since Leonardo received a final piece of After Porto, the eternal killer of Serie A in the Champions League, Juventus is next in Italy’s Derby.
Joao Mario has beaten this season. Remember?
(Top photo: Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)