Conte leaves the Inter bench

Antonio Conte has decided to leave Inter Milan amicably after a brilliant season in which the

club

has won the

after eleven seasons without success.

The 51-year-old coach wanted to continue expanding the club's horizons with new signings and tying up this season's stars such as Lukaku and Lautaro.

But the owner of Inter, the Chinese Steven Zhang, has informed him that he will have to undertake a series of economic cuts that do not fit with that project idea.

Conte landed in Milan two years ago after passing through Chelsea - he won a championship in England, the 2016-2017 one - and the Italian national team. His frustrated signing for Real Madrid three seasons ago, when the club fired Julen Lopetegui and entrusted Santiago Solari to later return to Zinedine Zidane, left him in the market wanting to coach a great. The Bernabéu seemed his natural place after Florentino Pérez had not overcome the departure of Mourinho, a coach with similar methods and results. But Sergio Ramos slammed the locker room doors in his face when his name began to sound strongly: “Respect is earned, it is not imposed. There are the coaches with whom we have won titles. The locker room management is more important than the knowledge of a coach ”.

In his first year at Inter, Conte left the team just one point behind Juventus and played in the final of the Europa League, which he lost to Sevilla (3-2) and prompted the coach to resign. In his second season

after having reinforced the squad with names such as Eriksen, Achraf and Arturo Vidal, and having retained Argentine Lautaro Martínez, he managed to impose his method and return Inter to the top of the

eleven years after winning his last trophy, when Mourinho coached the team and achieved a historic treble. The next season, coincidentally, both coaches - with a long history of collisions - were going to meet again in the same championship, since the Portuguese has signed for Roma.

The termination of Conte's contract, which will cost Inter about 7 million euros, is the clearest image of the crisis in Italian football. Empty coffers and smaller audiences that will force, even those who have been proclaimed champion of the national trophy and liquidated a historical cycle of nine consecutive seasons of Juventus, to sell their stars and dispense with the coach who has restored their glory afterwards over a decade. Inter fans came to the stadium on Wednesday to protest. Several banners showed their dissatisfaction and attacked the board for having made the decision to "resize a champion."

Conte's freedom may further stir up a summer market in which multiple teams will have to search for a technician.

Real Madrid, Juventus, Barcelona and, now Inter, will have to find a solution for their benches.

And the former coach of the

could fit in one of the vacant booths.

You can follow EL PAÍS DEPORTES on