Exclusive: Atletico Coach backed out of Inter race months ago

22 mag 2017

Diego Simeone has been out of the running for the Inter job for months, according to our sources. In fact, despite his friendship with vice-president Javier Zanetti, Simeone hasn’t met with Inter since February.

Fabrizio Romano reveals that Inter were very interested in signing the Argentine - who formerly played for both Lazio and the Nerazzurri - back in November.

Back then, they had just fired Frank De Boer, and wanted Stefano Pioli to act as a stopgap. While interested in doing this at some stage, the Argentine told Inter that he wanted to hear out Atletico Madrid on their future plans.

Though the Nerazzurri agreed, they made it clear that they couldn’t wait forever - leading them to look for other names, including those of Antonio Conte and Mauricio Pochettino.

Now, it appears that Simeone has wanted to stay at Atletico for months, agreeing to sponsor the new Wanda Metropolitano stadium, and reassuring his club back then that he wanted to stay.

Fabrizio Romano, adapted by @EdoDalmonte