Inter crowned Italian champions for the 21st time as Chivu hits the mark
Less than a year ago, Inter were getting a public hiding on the biggest stage. On May 31, 2025, the Nerazzurri fell 0-5 to PSG in the Champions League final. Simone Inzaghi walked out days later, leaving behind a shellshocked squad and a dressing room in bits. Eleven months on, Inter are champions of Italy for the 21st time in their history. The turnaround is complete.
They sealed the title on Sunday at the Giuseppe-Meazza, in front of their own fans, with a convincing win over Parma (2-0). Marcus Thuram and Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored the goals that confirmed the Scudetto, with three rounds still to play. By then, Inter were nine points clear of defending champions Napoli. The race had been dead for weeks.
New boss Cristian Chivu, brought in amid the wreckage after that European collapse, inherited a group badly damaged mentally. In January, he said: “I would not wish what this team went through on any team in the world.” But the Romanian has turned it around. “Once they understood they could stay competitive, they found the motivation needed to be what they have always been over the last five years,” he said in late April.
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Inter: Thuram and Martinez, the two men behind the Scudetto
The title was built on consistency. Inter took top spot after Matchday 15 and never gave it back. Federico Dimarco, Serie A’s top provider, and Lautaro Martinez, the league’s leading scorer, were the main men behind that dominance across the season. When the Argentine captain missed the last few weeks, Thuram stepped up, delivering at key moments in each of the last five games.
The start of the season was far from perfect. Inter lost two of their first three matches, and the Scudetto looked well out of reach for a squad still carrying the scars of that defeat in Paris. The rebuild took time, but it was steady. By spring, the gap to the chasers kept growing, until the title became a formality.
Chivu has also pulled off a personal feat with Inter. He is now the first man to win the Italian title with the club as a player and then as a coach. Jose Mourinho, now in charge of Benfica, praised his former player: “He arrived at Inter in a period of instability and he was outstanding in going on to win the Scudetto in his first year.”
Inter: a double still on, Europe still stings
Inter’s season is not done yet. On May 13, the Nerazzurri face Lazio Rome in the Coppa Italia final. Win that and Inter will complete the double, a further reward for a season built on grit. That is the clear aim inside the dressing room.
The only real blot on the campaign is the early Champions League exit at the knockout phase play-off stage, against Bodo-Glimt. For last season’s runners-up, it was a brutal and unexpected end. “We certainly could and should have done better,” Chivu admitted bluntly. But with a Scudetto in the bag and a Coppa Italia final to come, the European bruises hurt a little less.
Inter: Chivu writes his name into club history
In just one season in charge of the Nerazzurri, Chivu has carved out a place in Inter Milan’s history. Virgilio Fossati, the club’s first captain after its founding in 1908, did combine the two roles in 1910, but never one after the other. Chivu is the first to do it in sequence, first as a player and then as Inter coach.
It was under Jose Mourinho that the current Inter boss first won the Italian title, as a player, three times in a row between 2008 and 2010. Fifteen years later, he has now done it from the dugout. It’s a run that earns respect in a club and a city where pressure never lets up.
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