Wanda Nara was in tears as she confessed Mauro Icardi was distraught at losing the Inter captaincy. “It was like taking away a leg. It is not our intention to leave.”
She is something of an incongruous figure for Icardi, as she is his wife, his agent and also a TV presenter with her own career on Mediaset sports review show Tiki Taka.
It was on this programme last week that her comments infuriated the Inter directors and Icardi’s teammates.
Wanda Nara was in tears as she confessed Mauro Icardi was distraught at losing the Inter captaincy. “It was like taking away a leg. It is not our intention to leave.”
She is something of an incongruous figure for Icardi, as she is his wife, his agent and also a TV presenter with her own career on Mediaset sports review show Tiki Taka.
It was on this programme last week that her comments infuriated the Inter directors and Icardi’s teammates.
“I would like for Mauro to be better protected by the club. It’s hard to tell if the mean and untrue rumours come from within or outside the club.
“If I had to choose between a new contract and the arrival of someone who will give Icardi five decent passes per game, I’d prefer the latter.”
Wanda and Mauro were sitting in the stands today during the 2-1 victory over Sampdoria at San Siro, which Icardi missed officially due to a knee injury.
On Sunday evening, Wanda was back on the Tiki Taka sofa and had her say about the whole situation.
“We never had any doubts that we’d go to the game. I always go as wife of the captain, but also as mother of Inter fans. It has been difficult this week, as our little one has chicken pox, but fortunately Mauro’s father was in town.”
On Saturday morning there was a shocking incident, as Wanda’s car was struck by a rock while she was driving with her children in the back.
“Yesterday morning I woke up as usual and was driving with the kids to their training session and fortunately the incident occurred in an area where there are security cameras.
“I was in shock, I called someone at Inter and five minutes later Marotta called. They were very reassuring and helpful.”
The decision to strip Icardi of the captaincy and hand it to Samir Handanovic was a surprise to everyone when it was announced via a terse statement on Twitter and it turns out it was a surprise to Icardi too.
“Some say the armband is meaningless, but for Mauro it’s like taking away a leg more than an arm. He wears that jersey with such pride and if there were decisions to be made in the past about money or love of the shirt, he always chooses the shirt.
“I had no warning at all. I am always in contact with Inter, I have them on speed dial, but I only found out about the decision to revoke his captaincy on Twitter.
“I had a three-hour meeting with people very high up in the club and they never told me anything about it.
“Mauro scored 120 goals with this jersey and when nobody believed, he was the first to pick up the ball and call everyone forward, because he believes in this team. We are a family of Interisti, whether he is on the field or not.
“Inter are my family, so when the incident happened with the rock, the first people I called were Inter. Mauro was asleep, as he had training in the afternoon, so I didn’t know who else to call. We are here in Milan because of Inter.”
Former President Massimo Moratti personally called Wanda and Mauro after the decision was announced. Talking about this brought Wanda to tears.
“He was very kind and I thank him, because Mauro was so upset. He was in terrible condition. When he’s upset, he clams up and tries to bottle things up, tries to be the strong one.
“I asked Moratti if he could please help get Mauro to play again, because it means so much to him. It is not our intention to leave Inter, not at all.”
At this point, Inter director Beppe Marotta called in live and you can read his comments here.