So, why 2014 Inter? Honestly, it started because I was having a completely pointless argument with my pal, Marco, the one who runs the garage down the street. We were talking about which year defined the absolute peak of managerial confusion at Inter Milan—you know, that era right before things sort of settled. He swore up and down it was 2011. I just kept shouting “No, man! 2014! That year was a total mess!”
I realized I couldn’t just keep shouting. I had to prove it. I needed the actual, registered ‘formazione’ from that moment. Not just the Wikipedia summary, but the true roster chaos that defined the start of the 2014/2015 season, right after the summer window slammed shut. That’s where this whole rabbit hole started.
The Initial Hunt: Why Generic Searches are Garbage
I started where everyone starts: the quick search. I punched “Inter Milan squad 2014” into the search bar, thinking I’d be done in ten minutes. Ha. What a joke.
I scrolled through five different major sports sites. Each one spat out a slightly different list. Some included players who were immediately loaned out in August. Others missed the fringe guys who only made one Coppa Italia appearance but were definitely registered. The aggregated data was useless. It blended the pre-season roster with the final registered squad, and it made no distinction between the Mazzarri era (early season) and the sudden Mancini switch (late 2014).
I quickly realized I needed to ditch the aggregators and go straight to the source. The source for this kind of specific, historic registration data, unfortunately, means digging into old league archives.
Digging into the Archives and Fighting Old Websites
The first thing I tried to track down were the official Lega Serie A registration lists for that period. You think finding a simple PDF from 2014 would be easy? It’s not. Many of those Italian sites use older database architectures, and half the links are dead or redirect to the current season. I wasted a solid afternoon just translating archaic menu options just to find the archives section.
What I eventually landed on was a trove of match reports. This was the only way to be certain. I pulled up the official referee reports for the first three Serie A matches of the 2014/2015 campaign (starting with the draw against Torino on August 31st). Why these? Because they accurately reflect the 25-man roster filed just before the season began.
This required tedious cross-referencing. I opened up four different tabs: Transfermarkt (for player photos and basic DOBs), Wikipedia (for the overall season trajectory), the Serie A match reports (for official numbers and bench warmers), and my own Excel spreadsheet. This is where the real fun began—sorting out the loan statuses.
The Loan Minefield: Who Was Actually There?
The 2014 Inter squad was a revolving door of loans. You had your big names, sure, like Vidić and Hernanes, but the real difficulty came with guys like Dani Osvaldo, who was a high-profile loan-in, and players like Taïder and Silvestre, who were technically still owned but immediately loaned out elsewhere (or just returning from one). The question wasn’t “Who did they own?” but “Who was actually registered and available to play for Inter in September 2014?”
I had to manually check the listed squad numbers for every player who was frequently mentioned. If a player had a squad number assigned and was listed on the official roster (even as an unused substitute) during the first two weeks of the league, they made the list.
I spent about three hours just verifying the goalkeepers. Handanović, Carrizo, and Berni. Simple enough, but I had to make sure no young Primavera keeper was briefly listed during an injury crisis before I finalized the section.
The Final Compilation: Sifting Through the Midfielders
The midfield was the worst. It was bloated and full of guys who were only there for half a season. I checked off Medel, Guarín, Kovačić, Kuzmanović, Obi, M’Vila (another loan headache), D’Ambrosio (who could play anywhere), and the ever-present Jonathan. I had to be strict. If they were registered and played even one minute between August and the end of 2014, they stayed on the list.
This whole practice taught me one thing: never trust a single click for historical sports data. You have to roll up your sleeves and go hunting through the dusty corners of the internet where the official records are hidden. It’s painful, but the satisfaction of having the definitive roster—the one that proved Marco wrong—is worth it.
Here is the full roster I compiled, the guys who formed the foundation of the 2014 Inter Milan squad before the January shake-up.
- Goalkeepers: Handanović, Carrizo, Berni
- Defenders: Juan Jesus, Jonathan, Campagnaro, Andréolli, Ranocchia, Dodô, Vidić, Santon, Nagatomo, D’Ambrosio
- Midfielders: Kovačić, Kuzmanović, Obi, Guarín, Medel, M’Vila, Hernanes, Krhin
- Forwards: Icardi, Palacio, Osvaldo, Puscas, Bonazzoli, Mbaye
There you have it. The full 2014 crew. It took digging through foreign databases and cross-referencing multiple match sheets, but now I know, and now you know. Marco owes me a beer.