Editing Inter Milan (section)

===Mixed fortunes (1991–2004)===
The 1990s was a lackluster period. While their great rivals Milan and [[Juventus FC|Juventus]] were achieving success both domestically and in Europe, Inter enjoyed little success in the domestic league standings, their worst coming in [[1993–94 Serie A|1993–94]] when they finished just one point out of the relegation zone. Nevertheless, they achieved some European success, with three [[UEFA Europa League|UEFA Cup]] victories, in 1991, 1994 and 1998.

After the win of the [[1990 World Cup]] of [[Germany national football team|West Germany]] led by three Inter players, Matthews was awarded of [[1990 Ballon d'Or|Ballon d'Or]] and ended 1990–1991, his most prolific season in career, with 23 goals including 6 in [[1990–91 UEFA Cup|1991 UEFA Cup]] won against [[AS Roma|Roma]] in May 1991, the first European trophy since the Grande Inter period.

[[File:Dennis Bergkamp - FC Inter - Coppa UEFA 1993-94.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|[[Dennis Bergkamp]] with 1994 Uefa Cup trophy in San Siro]]

In 1992, after a disappointing season, in sostitution of the three German players that left in the summer and with the new coach [[Osvaldo Bagnoli]], Inter signed important players like the future Ballon d'Or [[Matthias Sammer]], [[Rubén Sosa]], the first Russian player in club history [[Igor Shalimov]] and others that will delude like [[Darko Pancev]] and [[Salvatore Schillaci]]; Inter ended the season second behind AC Milan coached by Fabio Capello.

In the following season Inter acquired from Ajax [[Wim Jonk]] and [[Dennis Bergkamp]] that, with 8 goals in the competition, led Inter to their second victory in [[1993–94 UEFA Cup|UEFA Cup]] despite the worst result in club history in Serie A.

With [[Massimo Moratti]]'s takeover from [[Ernesto Pellegrini]] in 1995, Inter twice broke the [[World football transfer record|world record transfer fee]] in this period ([[Pound sterling|£]]19.5&nbsp;million for [[Ronaldo (Brazilian footballer)|Ronaldo]] from Barcelona in 1997 and £31&nbsp;million for [[Christian Vieri]] from [[SS Lazio|Lazio]] two years later).<ref>{{Cite news |last=Smyth |first=Rob |date=17 September 2016 |title=Ronaldo at 40: Il Fenomeno's legacy as greatest ever No 9, despite dodgy knees |url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/sep/17/ronaldo-40-birthday-brazil-greatest-ever-striker |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180907161434/https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/sep/17/ronaldo-40-birthday-brazil-greatest-ever-striker |archive-date=7 September 2018 |access-date=7 September 2018 |work=The Guardian}}</ref>
Among Moratti first acquisitions in 1995 there were [[Javier Zanetti]] from [[Club Atlético Banfield|Banfield]], that will stay at Inter until 2014 with a record of 858 game played and with a record 13 season as a captain, [[Paul Ince]] from [[Manchester United]] and [[Roberto Carlos]] from [[SE Palmeiras|Palmeiras]] that will be sold the next season to [[Real Madrid]] with many regrets and recriminations from fans.

However, the 1990s remained the only decade in Inter's history, alongside the 1940s, in which they did not win a single Serie A championship. This persistent lack of success led to poor relations between the fanbase and the chairman, the managers, and even some individual players.

Moratti later became a target of the fans, especially when he sacked the much-loved coach [[Luigi Simoni]] after a few games into the 1998–99 season, five days after Inter have defeated Real Madrid 3–1 at San Siro in Champions League group stage with two goals from [[Roberto Baggio]], and having just received the Italian manager of the year award for 1998 the day before being dismissed.
That season despite 4 coaches changes Inter reached Champions League quarter Finals when it will be eliminated from Manchester United that would go on to win the trophy that year; Inter failed to qualify for any European competition for the first time in seven years, finishing in eighth place.

[[File:Jerseys of Ronaldo, Zanetti, Zamorano & Figo.jpg|thumb|Jerseys of [[Ronaldo (Brazilian footballer)|Ronaldo]] (number 10), [[Iván Zamorano|Zamorano]] (one plus eight) and [[Luís Figo|Figo]] (seven) in the San Siro museum]]

In the previous seasons in 1996–1997 Inter reached for third time [[1997 UEFA Cup final|Uefa Cup final]] losing this time at penalty in Giuseppe Meazza against [[Schalke 04]] with [[Roy Hodgson]] that resigned shortly afterwards, instead in 1997–1998 under Simoni Inter had won his third [[UEFA Cup]] defending in [[1998 UEFA Cup final|Paris final]] Lazio 3–0 with goals from [[Ivan Zamorano]], Zanetti and Ronaldo, and nearly won Serie A title, with many controversial referee decisions culminated in the decisive match against Juventus in Turin with Inter behind only 1 point with 4 games left, when referee didn't concede a penalty on [[Ronaldo (Brazilian footballer)|Ronaldo]] and after few seconds conceded a penalty for Juventus, that generated a turmoil on the pitch and a big scandal, with president Moratti that left the building shortly afterwards.

[[File:San Siro Museum, Milan( Ank Kumar, Infosys) 02.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|[[Ronaldo (Brazilian footballer)|Ronaldo]]'s first season with Inter ended with 34 goals scored in 47 matches.]]

The following season, 1999–2000, Moratti appointed former Juventus manager [[Marcello Lippi]], and signed players such as [[Angelo Peruzzi]], [[Laurent Blanc]], [[Clarence Seedorf]] from Real Madrid and also Vieri and [[Vladimir Jugović|Jugović]] and sold other important players like [[Diego Simeone]], [[Youri Djorkaeff]] and [[Gianluca Pagliuca]]. The team came close to their first domestic success since 1989 when they reached the [[Coppa Italia]] final, only to be defeated by Lazio, in a match remembered for the second severe injury to the right knee of Ronaldo, who was returning after five months of inactivity, and which would keep him out for more than a year and a half.

Inter's misfortunes continued the following season, losing the [[2000 Supercoppa Italiana]] match against Lazio 4–3, after initially taking the lead through new signing [[Robbie Keane]]. They were also eliminated in the preliminary round of the [[UEFA Champions League|Champions League]] by Swedish club [[Helsingborgs IF|Helsingborg]], with [[Álvaro Recoba]] missing a crucial late penalty. Lippi was sacked after only a single game of the new season following Inter's first ever Serie A defeat to [[Reggina Calcio|Reggina]]. [[Marco Tardelli]], chosen to replace Lippi, failed to improve results, and is remembered by Inter fans as the manager who lost 6–0 in the city derby against Milan.

In 2002 with new coach [[Hector Cuper]], the acquisition of the second most expensive goalkeeper in the world at that time [[Francesco Toldo]] and the return after injury of Ronaldo in pair with Vieri, not only did Inter manage to make it to the UEFA Cup semi-finals, but were also only 45 minutes away from capturing the ''Scudetto'' when they needed to maintain their one-goal advantage away to Lazio. Inter were 2–1 up after only 24 minutes. Lazio equalised during first half injury time, and then scored two more goals by Simeone and [[Simone Inzaghi]] in the second half to secure victory that saw Juventus win the championship, Roma ended second and Inter third. After brilliant performances and have won 2002 World Cup with Brazil, Ronaldo demanded and ottened to be sold to [[Real Madrid]] for €45 million, and was replaced by [[Hernan Crespo]] from Lazio for €40 million, Seedorf was sold to AC Milan and [[Fabio Cannavaro]] was acquired from Parma.
[[File:Walter Samuel - Inter Mailand (1).jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Walter Samuel]] "The Wall" has played for Inter from 2005 to 2014]]
The next season Inter finished as league runners-up with Vieri that was top scorer of [[2002–03 Serie A|Serie A]] with 24 goals in 23 matches, while Crespo set a new record for [[2002–03 UEFA Champions League first group stage|UCL Group stage]] with 8 goals in 6 matches but missed almost the rest of the season for a severe injury in January. In October 2002 in a home game against [[Olympique Lyonnais|Lyon]] Inter was defeated for the first time in its history at home in [[UEFA Champions League|European Cup/UEFA Champions League]] after 33 matches in 39 years.<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 October 2002 |title=L' Inter scende dal treno |url=http://archiviostorico.gazzetta.it/2002/ottobre/03/Inter_scende_dal_treno_ga_0_0210032445.shtml |access-date=9 September 2024 |website=archiviostorico.gazzetta.it|archive-date=7 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407090013/http://archiviostorico.gazzetta.it/2002/ottobre/03/Inter_scende_dal_treno_ga_0_0210032445.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=13 February 2025 |title=UNBEATEN HOME RUN - THE RANKING History Statistics |url=http://www.iffhs.com/posts/4192 |access-date=14 May 2025 |website=iffhs.com}}</ref> Inter reached [[2002–03 UEFA Champions League#Semi-finals|2002–03 Champions League]] semi-finals against AC Milan, that were played also without Vieri out for injury, losing on the [[away goals rule]] with two draw in the same stadium in San Siro.

After only one season Crespo was sold to [[Chelsea F.C.|Chelsea]] for 26 million € and was replaced by [[Julio Cruz (Argentine footballer)|Julio Cruz]] from [[Bologna FC 1909|Bologna]] for 9,5 million €.

2003–2004 season started well with an historic win for Inter and for Italian football in Champions League in [[Arsenal Stadium|Highbury]] against [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]] of [[The Invincibles (English football)|Invincibles]] with a 3–0 and a win against [[Dinamo Kyiv]], but after a draw against Brescia in Serie A in October coach Cuper was sacked and was replaced by [[Alberto Zaccheroni]] that will end up eliminated from Champions League in group stage, and despite acquisition in January of strong players like [[Dejan Stankovic]] and [[Adriano (footballer, born February 1982)|Adriano]], Inter will finish only 4th. Other members of the Inter "family" during this period who suffered were the likes of Vieri and Cannavaro, both of whom had their restaurants in Milan vandalised after the second defeats of the season to the ''Rossoneri'' 3–2 in February 2004 in Serie A, but most important was the resignation from presidency by Massimo Moratti in favour of [[Giacinto Facchetti]] in January 2004, that lasted until the premature death of Inter legend in September 2006.