Inter vs Milan Throwback: Minaudo, the One-Derby Wonder | OneFootball

Scoring the winner in the Derby di Milano at just 19 years of age, right on the day of your Serie A debut. Can it get any better than that for a footballer?

Perhaps it cannot, as that indeed turned out to be the highest point in Giuseppe Minaudo’s career. On April 6, 1986, this Sicilian-born midfielder – a product of Inter’s youth academy – netted the only goal of the day a few minutes after setting his foot on a Serie A pitch for the first time, as the Nerazzurri prevailed over Milan in the Derby della Madonnina.

It was Minaudo’s derby, but it was also the first that Silvio Berlusconi watched from the San Siro stands, having just acquired the Rossoneri from the financially struggling Giussy Farina. “I gave Berlusconi his very first football disappointment. Adriano Galliani would remind me of that every time I met him,” Minaudo later recalled in an interview with leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. His goal turned a quite uneventful derby in a quite uneventful campaign into a day to remember, at least for the Inter fans.

The 1985/86 Serie A season was indeed a transitional one for both the Milanese sides, as they were nowhere close to battling for the Scudetto. If there was one team in the city covering themselves with glory, that was basketball powerhouse Simac Olimpia Milan, who were honored right before the derby as they had just conquered the Italian title.

Inter and Milan ended a disappointing sixth and seventh in the Serie A table, with only Inter being able to at least snatch the last spot for next season’s UEFA Cup.

Speaking of which, the UEFA Cup – that was another source of major regrets for the Nerazzurri during that season. Just a few days before the derby, Inter had ended their European run in the cup semi-finals, losing 5-1 in extra time to Real Madrid and thus squandering a 3-1 lead they had built at the San Siro two weeks before! Mario Corso, a legend from the Grande Inter of the 1960s, was their coach. He had replaced Ilario Castagner earlier in the season, being promoted from his youth club manager job. On the other side of the pitch, Nils Liedholm, one of the greatest Rossoneri players himself, was in the Milan dugout for his third and final stint as their head coach. The lineups included both the Baresi brothers – Franco, a Milan legend, and the older, lesser-known Giuseppe, who played for Inter instead. The 1982 World Cup heroes Marco Tardelli and Alessandro Altobelli wore Inter’s black-and-blue jersey. Milan answered with the likes of Paolo Maldini and Mauro Tassotti, who would be the backbone of the Rossoneri’s winning cycle in just a few years. But there were also some notable absentees. Another 1982 icon, Paolo Rossi, was ending his career at Milan. Pablito had scored both the Rossoneri goals in the reverse fixture a few months earlier, but this time he was injured. So was Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the most dangerous among Inter’s strikers. The German picked up a hamstring injury during warm-up, and Corso had to quickly deploy Luciano Marangon in his place.

When Marangon also got injured in the first half, the Nerazzurri coach had no other option than turning to the young Minaudo, whom he knew since his days in charge of the Primavera – the youth club. He gave him some simple, clear instructions: “Keep calm and stay close to the goal when we cross the ball.”

The 19-year-old lad did listen to him. In the 77th minute of a pretty boring game – so much so that Corriere della Sera’s title the following morning would read “The Derby Is Dead” – Pietro Fanna took a free kick from the left corner of the pitch.

Andrea Mandorlini headed the ball right into Giuliano Terraneo’s left post, but Minaudo was quick to pounce on the rebound and slot it home from close range for the Nerazzurri’s winner. What a debut. It looked like the beginning of a dream for Giuseppe Minaudo.

However, his career never really took off. After his derby exploit, he struggled to get playing time at Inter and, after two years, decided to move elsewhere. Udinese, Atalanta, and Torino were the main destinations of his long wandering across the Italian peninsula, which ended in 2003 in the amateur divisions.

He went down in Serie A history as a one-goal wonder – a meteora, as the Italians say. He did score a few more goals, but everybody remembers him only for that stunner in the Derby della Madonnina.

Minaudo doesn’t have any regrets, though:

“I had the career that I deserved,” he admitted in the same interview with the Corriere. “I was not a champion that could play with Inter for ten years. But I did play in Serie A.”

That is more than many footballers can say, and humbler than many would be.

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