Inter Milan Treble Hero Names Ex Barcelona Striker As Decisive For 2009-10 Season: ‘He Was The Missing Piece’ | OneFootball

Marco Materazzi feels that striker Samuel Eto’o was “the missing piece” for Inter Milan winning the Treble in the 2009-10 season.

Speaking to Radio TV Serie A, via FCInterNews, Materazzi hailed the Cameroonian’s impact after joining from Barcelona.

Inter Milan certainly had a strong squad in the 2009-10 season.

There were players of an extremely high level across every position on the pitch.

Moreover, in Jose Mourinho, Inter had a coach at the peak of his powers who fit every player into place.

That allowed Inter to win the Serie A title, the Coppa Italia, and the Champions League.

It is not as though Inter had been lacking during the previous seasons. They had went on a run of Serie A title triumphs under Mourinho and Roberto Mancini.

But something changed in the summer of 2009. And former Inter defender Marco Materazzi feels that he knows what that was.

Materazzi: “Eto’o Was The Missing Piece For Inter Milan Treble”

Former Inter Milan defender Materazzi recalled, “We were a strong team, because the players who had arrived had given us strength.”

“It was Eto’o,” the former Italian international looked back.

ROME – MAY 05: Samuel Eto’o of Inter Milan celebrates after the Tim Cup final between FC Internazionale Milano and AS Roma at Stadio Olimpico on May 5, 2010 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Claudio Villa/Getty Images)

“He was coming off the back of a Treble,” Materazzi noted. Samuel Eto’o had won the Treble with Barcelona the season before he joined Inter.

“He had the mentality to come in and say that we would win.”

“When you have players like that, they push you on.”

“He was the missing piece in an historic puzzle,” Materazzi said. “One in which we were all important.”

“For example, Ivan [Cordoba] knew that we had something left to give.”

“Then, there were five players who came in,” Materazzi looked back. “After the elimination away in Manchester the previous season.”

The 2006 World Cup winner called that Inter side “a team where you didn’t know who would be left out on Sunday.”

“It was already full of top players. And then you add five more.”

“We knew we had the chance to win something,” Materazzi said. “Even though we had difficulties throughout the season, and we were five minutes from going out of the Champions League in Kyiv.”