APPIANO GENTILE - Approximately 1,000 fans watched as the Nerazzurri brought the first week of pre-season training to a close at the Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti this morning.
After an initial phase of athletic tests, the ninety-minute session continued with a series of ball exercises. Mario Balotelli did light training, as planned.
There will be no training on Sunday.
APPIANO GENTILE - Athletic tests followed by lots of work with the ball. Click below to see pictures of today's training session at the Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti:
APPIANO GENTILE - The fans turned up in numbers to watch Rafael Benitez' Inter bring to an end their first week of pre-season training.
More Saturday session shots from the training ground:
ROME - Italy celebrates its 150th anniversary next year and Italian football will honour the occasion by giving a second title to the TIM Cup. The winners of the 2010/11 competition will be crowned Coppa Italia and Coppa Unità d'Italia champions.
Italian defence minister Ignazio La Russa, who revealed the idea at the beginning of May, made a formal announcement today with Gianni Letta, under-secretary of the council of ministers, and Lega Calcio chief Maurizio Beretta.
MILAN - "I swear that I don't know anything, but you can think what you want..." With these words, a smiling Massimo Moratti replied to journalists asking for information about any meeting that may have taken place with Manchester City for Mario Balotelli. The Inter president, who spent the morning in the Saras offices, explained: "I don't have any information about this, I have had other things to do. Does Roberto Mancini want our striker? I suppose so, but don't ask me because I don't have any information at the moment."
Moratti was also asked if Inter intend to sell one or two big-name players during the transfer window. Referring to the obligation of big European clubs to comply with the UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations, he replied: "The company's philosophy for the next two years is to have a healthy balance sheet in order to avoid any problems, so we will do what is necessary to achieve this."
MILAN - Inter's academy directors have done another deal for one of our promising young players. Midfielder Lorenzo Degeri, born in 1992, has completed a co-ownership move to Cremonese after a successful season on loan in which he scored 17 goals for their Under-17 team.
Degeri, who played for all of Inter's youth teams from the Pulcini to the Allievi Nazionali categories before joining Cremonese last season, will be coached by Marco Baroni at the Lega Pro First Division (Serie C1) side.
APPIANO GENTILE - Marco Materazzi reported back for pre-season training today after two days of leave following his participation in the Messi and Friends v Rest of the World event in Panama. Also returning to the training ground this morning was Victor Obinna, who took part in the recently-ended World Cup with Nigeria after a season on loan at Malaga.
Rafael Benitez's squad worked in groups on day five of the pre-season. After a series of athletic tests and technique drills, the Nerazzurri played some practice games with the focus on ball possession.
Amantino Mancini was put through an individual strength-building session. Materazzi and Obinna also trained apart this morning.
Tomorrow morning's training session at the Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti will be open to the public. Fans can take their places in the stand adjacent to the pitch at 08:30 ahead of the 09:00 start. Rafael Benitez' squad will not train on Sunday.
APPIANO GENTILE - Marco Materazzi and Victor Obinna met new coach Rafael Benitez on their return to the Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti for pre-season training:
APPIANO GENTILE - More photos of Rafael Benitez and the Nerazzurri at work during Friday's training session:
MILAN - Three of FC Internazionale's academy players have completed permanent moves to AC Milan.
Hungarian midfielder Attila Filkor, 22, joins the Rossoneri after two seasons in Serie B with Sassuolo (15 appearances) and Gallipoli (6 appearances) from January 2010.
Joining Filkor at AC Milan are Romanian youth international defender Cristian Daminuta, 20, who spent the last six months of 2009/10 on loan at Dynamo Bucharest (2 appearances), and Italian midfielder Marco Ezio Fossati, 17, who played for Inter's Allievi Nazionali and Primavera teams in two seasons with the Nerazzurri. He has been capped at Under-17 and Under-19 level.
MILAN - The first round of the 2010/11 Serie A championship will take place on Sunday 29 August, it has been announced by the Lega Serie A. Italy's top-tier will kick off the weekend after the Italian Super Cup curtain raiser on 21 August.
There will be four midweek rounds in 2010/2011: Wednesday 22 September, Wednesday 10 November, Thursday 6 January and Wednesday 2 February. The breaks for European Championship qualifiers are scheduled for Sunday 5 September, Sunday 10 October and Sunday 27 March. During the Christmas break there will be no Serie A games on Sunday 26 December and Sunday 2 January.
The 2010/11 Serie A season will end on Sunday 22 May.
Coppa Italia action gets under way on Sunday 8 August, with the second round a week later, the third on Wednesday 27 October and the fourth on Thursday 25 November or Tuesday 30 November. The round of sixteen games will take place on Thursday 9 December, Tuesday 14 December or Wednesday 12 January. After the quarter-finals on Wednesday 26 January, the two-legged semi-finals will be played on Wednesday 20 April and Wednesday 11 May. There are two possible dates for the final: Sunday 29 May or Saturday 11 June.
MILAN - Two of the club's youth players have transferred to new clubs for the 2010/11 season.
Left-back Juri Toppan, 20, joins newly promoted Lega Pro Division One side Spezia on a co-ownership deal. Toppan made 12 appearances (979 minutes played) for Villacidrese last season before finishing the campaign with Catania Primavera.
Inter Primavera striker Samuele Beretta, 19, will play Lega Pro Second Division football with Pavia next season. Pavia have an option to buy the player at the end of the loan period.
APPIANO GENTILE - Massimo Moratti spoke briefly to Sky Sport Italia about the transfer market after visiting Rafael Benitez and the team at the training facility this lunchtime.
On the transfer rumours about Mario Balotelli, the Inter president commented: "Balotelli is back in training and he is working very hard. We all know that he is very talented and is always wanted by other clubs, and with him we are looking for the right solution. Manchester United and Manchester City are two serious clubs who make their valuations and then it's for us to decide if this valuation is similar to ours. For the moment we are quite far away from this solution."
Javier Mascherano? "Technically and tactically I don't know him well enough to give a proper opinion. I know that he has done very well in every team he has played for. He's an intelligent player but we have good and intelligent players in his position, so we need to see if the player in question is necessary for the coach's tactics. And then we need to see if there is a real possibility of buying him."
For Moratti, a repeat of last year's trophy-laden campaign requires "skill, spirit of sacrifice and also luck, so let's hope that these three things go together again, and let's hope that with a few good transfers we can keep this group that has given us great satisfaction. We will certainly have to be very careful economically, especially considering the rules imposed by UEFA that will come into force in a few years."
APPIANO GENTILE - Inter president Massimo Moratti, accompanied by vice managing director Stefano Filucchi, arrived at the training ground shortly after 13:00 today to greet the team. Moratti, back in Italy after several days abroad, had lunch with Rafael Benitez.
APPIANO GENTILE - Eighteen-year-old Brazilian midfielder Philippe Coutinho Correia, who has joined Inter from Vasco de Gama, will be unveiled to the press at the Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti on Monday 19 July.
All accreditation requests should be sent to press@inter.it before the deadline of 18:00 on Saturday 17 July.
Accredited media can enter the training facility next Monday at 12:00.
APPIANO GENTILE - "I'm very happy to be at Inter, a great team. In Brazil I watched every game and now it's a dream to play in the Inter shirt." With these words, Philippe Coutinho Correia presented himself to Inter Channel yesterday afternoon on his arrival at the Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti.
The 18-year-old Brazilian youngster returned to the training ground this morning for his first session with his new team-mates:
APPIANO GENTILE - Pre-season preparations continued with a morning training session at the Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti.
Under the orders of Rafael Benitez and his staff, the Nerazzurri performed a series of technical-tactical drills and played some training games.
Brazilian Philippe Coutinho, who will be presented to the press on Monday 19 July, and Rene Khrin, back from World Cup duty with Slovenia, trained with their team-mates. Amantino Mancini trained apart.
APPIANO GENTILE - More exclusive photos of the Nerazzurri in pre-season training at the Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti:
APPIANO GENTILE - Slovenian and Brazilian youngsters have Rene Krhin and Coutinho have joined Rafael Benitez' squad as pre-season preparations continued this morning with a training session at the Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti.
MILAN - Click below to see more photos of Wednesday night's presentation of our new home shirt at the Nike Football Milano store:
