Legendary Italian multinational tyre manufacturer Pirelli only recently ended their historic 26-year relationship with Inter. Pirelli had long adorned the Nerazzurri’s jersey on the front, making for an iconic partnership that lasted for almost three decades.
The company’s CEO, Marco Tronchetti Provera, who has been with the Pirelli Group since 1986, has revealed the impact of watching legendary Spanish striker Luis Suarez score his first goal at the Giuseppe Meazza after his world-record move from Barcelona.
Tronchetti’s allegiances with Inter go way back to his initial teenage years, when he attended his first football match. He credits the enigmatic marksman for making him feel one with the club, a connection that started in the early 1960’s and one that has carried on for sixty plus years.
Speaking to Italian news outlet Il Sole 24 Ore, the Pirelli executive shed light on his love for the club that started back then. At the same time, he also reveled in the club’s historic treble success little more than a decade ago under Jose Mourinho.
“When I was ten, I attended my first football match at San Siro when Inter played SPAL. I remember, a few years later, the debut of Luis Suárez, just arrived at Inter from Barcelona,” he recalled, “It was in the evening. He scored from forty meters and that left everyone speechless.”
He compared the emotion he first felt to Inter’s success on all fronts almost fifty years later, when the Nerazzurri registered the first-ever treble by an Italian club in the 2009/10 season, under the leadership of chairman Massimo Moratti.
“It was a very strong emotion, comparable to the one experienced, many years later, with the treble conquered by my friend Moratti,” he explained.
Milan-based Pirelli’s place on the front of the famous Black & Blue jersey was overtaken after 26 years by crypto fan-token Socios.com from the start of the 2021/22 campaign.