Walter - The Streak

Imagine how rare it must be for two teams in the same city to have both won the Champions League. In 2023, Manchester joined Milano in that exclusive group. AC Milan won the European Cup in 1963, with Inter following suit in the next two years, before AC Milan lifted the trophy again in 1969. In 2007, AC Milan won the Champions League, and three years later Inter completed the Treble. A battle for supremacy that starts in the city and extends across the continent. Now imagine Inter and AC Milan at their peak, say from the second half of the 2000s onwards. Every derby was a contest for something bigger. Impossible to predict. Now imagine playing ten of those derbies in Serie A and having a record that reads: no defeats, no draws, ten wins. And the tenth ends 1-0. And you score the goal. Even though you’re a centre-back by trade. It sounds like one of those stories lifted from a comic book, too good to be true. And yet…

…It’s easy when your name is Walter Samuel.

The tenth derby in ten games was decided after just three minutes. Cassano, a former player who was loudly booed by the fans, won the free-kick. Cambiasso delivered it, and Samuel, lurking at the far post, turned it in. Walter Samuel was never much of a talker, to put it mildly. And yet he was destined for the top. At 18, he was a starter at Newell’s Old Boys; at 21, a Copa Libertadores winner with Boca Juniors; at 22, an Italian champion with Roma. Then came Real Madrid, during one of the few underwhelming seasons for the Spanish giants in the third millennium. It was the era of the Zidanes y Pavones: world-class stars alongside young players from the academy. But the stars in that version of the Galacticos were all attacking players: Zidane, Raul, Ronaldo, Figo, Owen, Beckham and Roberto Carlos. Fantastic if you need to take a free-kick, but there wasn’t a single defensive midfielder in the squad. Opponents were coming from all directions and Real finished second in the league. By their standards, a resounding failure. Inter arrived at the end of the season and, with Walter often in the sights of the Madrid press, the move felt like a release. Nine seasons followed, filled with unforgettable victories, above all the Treble, during which he and defensive partner Lucio kept the likes of Ibrahimovic, Drogba and Muller in their pockets. And then there was the derby streak, something almost surreal. Ten out of ten.

Because life isn’t a movie, as Articolo 31 sang, Walter did play one more derby, his eleventh, in the third-to-last game of his Inter career. It finished 1-0 to AC Milan, with De Jong scoring the winner. So be it. What remains is a streak that will be difficult to match: ten out of ten. And the icing on the cake came on 7 October, 14 years ago. Someone else might have prepared a commemorative shirt, celebrated in a special way, perhaps even made a documentary about it. Instead, after scoring, Walter Samuel simply raised his arms slightly towards the Inter fans. That was enough.