Eder predicts Inter “will fight at the top” of Serie A this season, and believes “with Antonio Conte on the bench, Italy would have gone to Russia”.
The forward has left the Nerazzurri for Jiangsu Suning, and he sat down with Gazzetta dello Sport to look back on his time in Italy.
“I’ll never forget my three years at Inter,” Eder said.
Eder predicts Inter “will fight at the top” of Serie A this season, and believes “with Antonio Conte on the bench, Italy would have gone to Russia”.
The forward has left the Nerazzurri for Jiangsu Suning, and he sat down with Gazzetta dello Sport to look back on his time in Italy.
“I’ll never forget my three years at Inter,” Eder said.
“It wasn’t easy to give up the Champions League but I made the right choice. I had the chance to go to China two years ago after the European Championships but I said no, it wasn’t the right time.
“Now it’s different, I wanted a change of scenery and I have no regrets.
“Inter? It’s a strong team, last season we created an important foundation for the future. Everyone was pulling in the same direction.
“There’s discussion in a dressing room, of course, but the final objective was the same.
“[Coach Luciano] Spalletti wants to win the Scudetto, there’s no doubt about it, and Inter have to get back to lifting trophies soon. I’m sure they’ll fight at the top.
“Some good players have come in, [Kwadwo] Asamoah and [Radja] Nainggolan prove the club has big ideas.
“As for Lautaro Martinez, he has desire, physical strength, technical qualities and a tough character. He has everything to became an important man for Inter’s future.
“Then with [Mauro] Icardi he has the right person to learn from. I’ve known Mauro since we were together at Samp and he’s incredible, he gets better every season.
“When I think about last season we dropped too many points against the medium and small teams, which is the real difference with Juventus.
“If Spalletti manages to eliminate this defect, Inter will be able to play on equal terms.”
Eder is also an Italian international, and went to the European Championships with Antonio Conte.
“He’s different from the others, he’s maniacal.
“Go and watch the first goal against Belgium from the European Championships. For an entire week before the game he’d been explaining the movements, and the goal came just like that.
“Those are the things that win a player over. He treats everyone the same, in the national team I saw him talk to me, then a minute later speak to [Gianluigi] Buffon in exactly the same way.
“I can only thank him, he allowed me to live a dream. I remember everyone slaughtered us, they said: ‘where can Italy go with [Graziano] Pellè and Eder’. And yet…
“Giampiero Ventura? All I can say is that with Conte on the bench Italy would have gone to Russia with a cigarette in the mouth. What happened in the dressing room before Italy-Sweden just wouldn’t have happened.”