INTER MILAN

Internazionale, or Inter Milan as they are more commonly known had 9 figures released as part of the Italian Superstars range of Headliners. 7 of those were featured in the first release of figures in March 1997 and they were followed up by 2 more in July 1997, those 2 were Djorkaeff and Bergomi.

 

​

A whole host of new and first time sculpts made up this release and all but two of those have never been released again by Corinthian.

 

​

First time sculpts included Italian goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca painted in a very detailed kit and bright yellow sponsorship logo. The sculpt of Jocelyn Angloma is very prominent as is the Nicola Berti figure which featured a lot of facial work and made him look older than he was. Aron Winter's figure has always been a favourite of mine as there just seems to be no expression on his face and he has a rather vacant look about him, with Salvatore Fresi getting his first and only Corinthian release.

 

​

The sculpt of Marco Branca was not the one pictured in either the collectors information file, nor the one on the collector card, the face is the same of course but he has a different body pose to the released figure. Fresi, Pagliuca, Angloma, Berti Winter and Branca would never be released by Corinthian again.

 

​

The sculpt of Inter Milan legend Giuseppe Bergomi has a real look of authority about it with inward facing eyebrows and tight lips, this perfectly captured the concentration and authority the player displayed throughout his career. Bergomi would later feature in the ProStars range as part of the International Tournament Greats series, however that would be an entirely different sculpt.

 

​

Paul Ince's figure is exactly the same facial sculpt but on a different body pose to the ones released for England and Liverpool. All the promotional items and even the backing card for the blisters had the Ince pictured as the original sculpt but in an Inter shirt, so Corinthian must have changed the body pose for the figure at a very late stage.

 

​

Youri Djorkaeff was also released in France national kit as part of the Super Champions range, and would also feature in ProStars series 2, using the same sculpt. Something to mention regarding the Djorkaeff is that there are 2 code versions, he was done with his SER code of SER031 under the base, however there is an alternate version which has his France national kit code of FRA014 under his base. The reason for this has to be that Corinthian used the same France figures and just re painted them into the Blue and Black stripes of Inter Milan.

 

​

All 9 figures were released during the 1996/97 season and have been listed as wearing the kit from that season but 2 of the figures have the badge in the middle of the kit. Those 2 are Djorkaeff and Bergomi who were both released in July 0f 1997. All of the figures should have been painted with the badge in the middle of the shirt but sadly the first 7 were not, it appears Corinthian addressed this painting error as the figures released in July had the correct kit replication with badge painted in the middle.

 

​

I feel i must add at this point that there was a 10th figure made for this release but sadly he was not released, this figure was Brazilian legend Ronaldo. The Ronaldo figure was planned to be released as part of the next series of Italian Superstars; as were a few others i could mention, but sadly this set was never given the go ahead.

 

​

Ronaldo was instead released as part of the Worldstars98 set of figures but his base listed him as SER122 an Italian Superstars base code, thus meaning he was made with the intention of including him in that release, so as a result i have included him in this set but no blisters of Ronaldo were ever released in the Italian Superstars packaging.

 

​

There is however a Ronaldo Inter Milan Italian SuperStars collector card and the only explanation i can think of for the existence of the card is that a few sachets had been produced of him with the collector card inside and sold at the Corinthian Conventions, however i do stress it is only a theory, how they came into existence is still unexplained but what is certain is that the SER122 Ronaldo Inter Milan collector card is insanely rare!

 

​

This was the very first sculpt of Ronaldo and is perhaps my favourite Corinthian ever made of him, just a shame there was a factory error which meant he had his badge on the left of his shirt instead of in the centre, but the sculpt was still a spot on likeness and would be a great addition to any ones collection.

 

​

All figures were released as single blister packs, which came with collector card and information file. There are also 2 versions of the 4 pack, with 4 pack A containing Paul Ince, Salvatore Fresi, Marco Branca and Gianluca Pagliuca, while 4 pack B contains Jocely Angloma, Aaron Winter, Gianluca Pagliuca and Nicola Berti.