How Pirelli has affected the aesthetics of Inter After 26 years, one of the longest-lasting partnerships in Italian football ends

"We will no longer be the jersey sponsor but there will be a continuity of relationship, we will maintain the relationship".

With these words Marco Tronchetti Provera, CEO of Pirelli, officially confirmed the end of the link between the club and Inter. For the first time a person from the Pirelli shore spoke in these terms, marking the end of an era and a partnership that has continued uninterrupted since 1995. Over the past two years, the break between the club and the multinational for sure but never made official, almost as if the interested parties intended to have the fans absorb, with due notice, the disappearance of Pirelli from the Inter shirt.

Pirelli has entered the collective imagination of the fans, the same ones who in the last 26 years have always and only seen Pirelli (in various forms) on the Nerazzurri shirt. In only 4 cases the Pirelli logo was not represented in its classic form: in 2007-08 on the centenary jersey, in 2015-16 with the "Driver" variant, in the edition dedicated to Pirellifilm.com and the Chinese New Year in 2006.

According to the calculations of the experts, in the last 25 years Pirelli has paid 234 million euros into the Nerazzurri's coffers, with an average of 9.37 million per season. There is talk of a negligible figure if we consider that Inter is currently looking for a sponsor who can provide financial aid of € 30-35 million, three times what Pirelli spends on average annually.