Over the summer 1992 off-season, soon to be twenty-seven-year-old Pančev signed for Internazionale in a high-profile transfer with the ITL14 billion (£7 million) fee paid to Red Star. Inter thus beat out Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, and AC Milan, each of whom had approached the player over the preceding six months. Arriving at a club that had finished the previous league season in disappointing eighth place (which precipitated a major squad overhaul with the famous German triumvirate of Lothar Matthäus, Jürgen Klinsmann, and Andreas Brehme leaving San Siro and head coach Luis Suárez getting fired), Pančev was naturally looked to for goals as suggested by his glowing reputation from the Yugoslav First League and Red Star's European campaigns. Upon signing, the club owner and president Ernesto Pellegrini even compared him to Paolo Rossi, giving an indication of the level of expectation thrust upon the Macedonian.