# 1997–98 Inter Milan season

In the 1997–98 season, the Italian football club Inter Milan, managed by Luigi Simoni, won the UEFA Cup and achieved second place in the Serie A league.

## Season overview

Massimo Moratti relied on Luigi Simoni as coach and on Ronaldo as star. Further purchases resulted in Diego Simeone, Francesco Moriero and Álvaro Recoba who – in his debut – scored twice, helping Inter beat Brescia in a 2–1 comeback. Compared to the previous seasons, it proved to be better for Inter who mounted their first serious shot at the title since 1989.
However, with a loss at Juventus, the reigning champions won 1–0, holding three points over Inter. Ten days later, Inter won – for the third time in the last seven years – the UEFA Cup beating Lazio 3–0. The domestic league ended with Inter in second place, last achieved in 1993.

## Players

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | ITA | Gianluca Pagliuca |
| 2 | DF | ITA | Giuseppe Bergomi |
| 3 | DF | ITA | Massimo Tarantino |
| 4 | DF | ARG | Javier Zanetti |
| 5 | DF | ITA | Fabio Galante |
| 6 | MF | FRA | Youri Djorkaeff |
| 7 | DF | ITA | Salvatore Fresi |
| 8 | MF | NED | Aron Winter |
| 9 | FW | CHI | Iván Zamorano |
| 10 | FW | BRA | Ronaldo |
| 11 | FW | NGA | Nwankwo Kanu |
| 12 | GK | ITA | Andrea Mazzantini |
| 13 | MF | BRA | Zé Elias |
| 14 | MF | ARG | Diego Simeone |
| 15 | MF | FRA | Benoît Cauet |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 16 | DF | NGA | Taribo West |
| 17 | MF | ITA | Francesco Moriero |
| 18 | MF | ITA | Nicola Berti |
| 19 | DF | ITA | Massimo Paganin |
| 20 | FW | URU | Álvaro Recoba |
| 21 | DF | ITA | Luca Mezzano |
| 22 | GK | ITA | Raffaele Nuzzo |
| 23 | FW | ITA | Maurizio Ganz |
| 24 | DF | ITA | Luigi Sartor |
| 27 | FW | ITA | Marco Branca |
| 33 | DF | ITA | Francesco Colonnese |
| 35 | DF | URU | Martin Rivas |
| 36 | DF | ITA | Mauro Milanese |
| 40 | MF | POR | Paulo Sousa |

### Transfers

In :
| Pos. | Name | from | Type |
| FW | Ronaldo | Barcelona | U$31,0 million |
| MF | Diego Simeone | Atletico Madrid | U$6,5 million |
| FW | Álvaro Recoba | Nacional de Montevideo | U$3,5 million |
| MF | Zé Elias | Bayer Leverkusen | |
| MF | Benoît Cauet | Paris Saint-Germain | |
| DF | Luigi Sartor | Vicenza | U$3,2 million |
| DF | Taribo West | Auxerre | U$3,0 million |
| MF | Francesco Moriero | A.C. Milan | co-ownership |
| DF | André Cruz | Napoli | |
| DF | Devis Nossa | Orsa Treviglio | |
| FW | Alessandro Sgrigna | Lodigiani | |
| MF | Alessandro Conticchio | Gualdo | re-purchased |
| MF | Fabio Di Sauro | Cremonese | re-purchased |
| MF | Marco Nichetti | Gualdo | re-purchased |
| MF | Andrea Zanchetta | Foggia | re-purchased |
| GK | Marco Fortin | Torres | loan ended |
| GK | Giorgio Frezzolini | Trapani | loan ended |
| GK | Raffaele Nuzzo | Gualdo | loan ended |
| GK | Paolo Orlandoni | Foggia | loan ended |
| DF | Alessandro Fioretti | Trapani | loan ended |
| DF | Natale Gonnella | Ravenna | loan ended |
| DF | Luca Mezzano | Torino | loan ended |
| DF | Alessandro Pedroni | Cremonese | loan ended |
| MF | Fabio Cinetti | Torino | loan ended |
| MF | Pierluigi Orlandini | Hellas Verona | loan ended |
| MF | Gianni Testa | Frosinone | loan ended |
| FW | Caio | Napoli | loan ended |
| FW | Samuel Ipoua | Torino | loan ended |
| FW | Mohammed Kallon | Lugano | loan ended |
| FW | Fabrizio Laccetti | Solbiatese | loan ended |
| FW | Marco Veronese | Monza | loan ended |
Out :
| Pos. | Name | To | Type |
| MF | Paul Ince | Liverpool | |
| MF | Ciriaco Sforza | Kaiserslautern | |
| DF | Jocelyn Angloma | Valencia | |
| DF | André Cruz | A.C. Milan | |
| DF | Alessandro Pistone | Newcastle United | |
| MF | Pierluigi Orlandini | Parma | |
| FW | Marco Delvecchio | Roma | |
| GK | Christian Berretta | Varese | |
| GK | Marco Fortin | Giorgione | |
| DF | Matteo Ferrari | Genoa | |
| DF | Natale Gonnella | Hellas Verona | |
| DF | Alessandro Pedroni | Monza | |
| FW | Caio | Santos Futebol Clube | |
| MF | Alessandro Conticchio | Lecce | |
| MF | Gianni Testa | Lodigiani | |
| GK | Paolo Orlandoni | Acireale | loan |
| GK | Giorgio Frezzolini | Fidelis Andria | loan |
| MF | Fabio Cinetti | Chievo Verona | loan |
| MF | Fabio Di Sauro | Fidelis Andria | loan |
| MF | Marco Nichetti | Ascoli | loan |
| FW | Arturo Di Napoli | Vicenza | loan |
| FW | Mohammed Kallon | Bologna | loan |
| FW | Marco Veronese | Prato | loan |
| FW | Samuel Ipoua | Rapid Wien | loan renewal |
| MF | Andrea Zanchetta | Chievo Verona | co-ownership |
| FW | Gionatha Spinesi | Castel di Sangro | co-ownership |

#### Autumn

In :
| Pos. | Name | To | Type |
| MF | Paulo Sousa | Borussia Dortmund | U$6,0 million |
| DF | Mauro Milanese | Parma | |
| DF | Francesco Colonnese | Napoli | |
| DF | Martín Rivas | Danubio | |
| GK | Giorgio Frezzolini | Fidelis Andria | loan ended |
| MF | Marco Nichetti | Ascoli | loan ended |
| FW | Mohammed Kallon | Bologna | loan ended |
Out :
| Pos. | Name | To | Type |
| FW | Marco Branca | Middlesbrough | |
| FW | Maurizio Ganz | A.C. Milan | |
| MF | Nicola Berti | Tottenham Hostpur | |
| DF | Massimo Paganin | Bologna | |
| DF | Massimo Tarantino | Bologna | co-ownership |
| GK | Giorgio Frezzolini | Udinese | loan |
| MF | Marco Nichetti | Varese | loan |
| FW | Mohammed Kallon | Genoa | loan |

#### Winter

| In | In | In | In |
| Pos. | Name | from | Type |
| GK | Sébastien Frey | Cannes | |
Out :
| Pos. | Name | To | Type |
| GK | Sébastien Frey | Cannes | loan |

## Competitions
### Serie A
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Juventus (C) | 34 | 21 | 11 | 2 | 67 | 28 | +39 | 74 | Qualification to Champions League group stage |
| 2 | Internazionale | 34 | 21 | 6 | 7 | 62 | 27 | +35 | 69 | Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round |
| 3 | Udinese | 34 | 19 | 7 | 8 | 62 | 40 | +22 | 64 | Qualification to UEFA Cup |
| 4 | Roma | 34 | 16 | 11 | 7 | 67 | 42 | +25 | 59 | Qualification to UEFA Cup |
| 5 | Fiorentina | 34 | 15 | 12 | 7 | 65 | 36 | +29 | 57 | Qualification to UEFA Cup |
* ↑ Fiorentina finished ahead of Parma on head-to-head points: FIO 1–1 PAR; PAR 1–2 FIO.

#### Results by round

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 |
| Ground | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | H |
| Result | W | W | W | W | D | W | W | W | D | W | D | W | L | W | W | L | D | W | L | D | W | L | W | L | W | W | W | W | W | W | L | D | L | W |
| Position | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |

#### Matches
### UEFA Cup
#### First round
#### Final
## Statistics
### Players statistics

| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Total | Total | Serie A | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Coppa Italia | UEFA Cup | UEFA Cup |
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| 1 | GK | ITA | Pagliuca | 49 | -42 | 34 | -26 | 4 | -8 | 11 | -8 |
| 4 | DF | ARG | Zanetti J | 41 | 2 | 25+3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 2 |
| 2 | DF | ITA | Bergomi | 42 | 0 | 28 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 0 |
| 24 | DF | ITA | Sartor | 38 | 1 | 23 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 9 | 0 |
| 5 | DF | ITA | Galante | 31 | 2 | 20 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| 16 | DF | NGA | West | 34 | 2 | 22+1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| 17 | MF | ITA | Moriero | 44 | 6 | 26+2 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 10 | 3 |
| 14 | MF | ARG | Simeone | 41 | 7 | 27+3 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 1 |
| 8 | MF | NED | Winter | 35 | 1 | 23+1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 0 |
| 6 | MF | FRA | Djorkaeff | 42 | 8 | 25+4 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 0 |
| 10 | FW | BRA | Ronaldo | 47 | 34 | 32 | 25 | 4 | 3 | 11 | 6 |
| 12 | GK | ITA | Mazzantini | 3 | -2 | 0+1 | -1 | 2 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| 33 | DF | ITA | Colonnese | 29 | 1 | 17+4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 15 | MF | FRA | Cauet | 42 | 3 | 15+13 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 1 |
| 7 | DF | ITA | Fresi | 23 | 0 | 13+3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 13 | MF | BRA | Zé Elias | 30 | 2 | 12+8 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 1 |
| 40 | MF | POR | Paulo Sousa | 11 | 0 | 10+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 36 | DF | ITA | Milanese | 9 | 1 | 5+4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | FW | CHI | Zamorano | 20 | 3 | 4+9 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 2 |
| 27 | FW | ITA | Branca | 8 | 1 | 3+4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 23 | FW | ITA | Ganz | 10 | 4 | 3+3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| 11 | FW | NGA | Kanu | 18 | 1 | 3+8 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 20 | FW | URU | Recoba | 19 | 5 | 2+6 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
| 21 | DF | ITA | Mezzano | 8 | 0 | 2+2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 18 | MF | ITA | Berti | 4 | 0 | 0+4 | 0 |
| 22 | GK | ITA | Nuzzo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 | DF | ITA | Paganin |
| 35 | DF | URU | Rivas | 3 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | DF | ITA | Tarantino | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* Source: http://calcio-seriea.net/rose/1997/1130/