author of a great start to the season, Marcus Thuram put the Boot at his feet with Inter

Arriving in Italy last summer, the French international has largely contributed to the successful start of the season for Inter Milan, who face Genoa on Friday as championship leader.

One evening in October 2020, Marcus Thuram needed to search for his photo on Google to prove his identity to the security of the Giuseppe-Meazza stadium, who refused him access during the visit of his former club, Borussia Mönchengladbach, in the Champions League. Now there are its entrances. Author of an express adaptation in Serie A after signing free at Inter this summer, the Frenchman is one of the great architects of the successful start of the season for his new team, leader of the championship with four points ahead of the Juventus before challenging Genoa, Friday December 29.

Decisive 18 times (eight goals and ten assists) in 24 matches with the Nerazzurri, the Sochalian by training quickly made a place of choice in Simone Inzaghi’s XI, orphan of Edin Dzeko (who left for Fenerbahçe) and Romelu Lukaku (AS Roma). However, forgetting the two men who took turns alongside the Argentinian Lautaro Martinez to run the attack of the finalists of the last Champions League was not easy.

“Right at home”

“You would have thought that he would have difficulty integrating, it is normal that changing countries is difficult. On the contrary, he did very well. His teammates were very good because they allowed him to immediately feel at home, immediately comfortable in this team. And it gives us very good results. He must continue to work like this and be as focused as he is every day.” had thus greeted his coach before the reception of Salzburg in C1, at the end of October.

It must be said that the ex-Guingampais was not moving into completely unknown territory. Born in Parma when his father, Lilian, played there at the end of the 1990s, Marcus Thuram got into the habit of hitting the Italian pitches from his early childhood. He, who lived for nine years in Italy, speaks the local language fluently. An undeniable plus which helped to tip the scales in favor of the Lombards, while several teams smelled the right move. Arriving at the end of his contract across the Rhine last June, the French international was notably tracked by Paris Saint-Germain.

Questioned by Kylian Mbappé in a video broadcast on Canal+ on the reasons for not joining the capital, Marcus Thuram mentioned a “question of feeling”. “I never asked for a guarantee of playing time. Inter was there two years ago. The club always saw me as a number 9, it was a clear choice”had again swept away the older brother of Khafre. Because at 26 years old, this positioning is now very close to his heart.

Nine of Hearts

Long aligned on the left wing in Ligue 1 as in the Bundesliga, where he took the most “pleasure”Marcus Thuram definitively opted for a center forward role at the start of last season, after a conversation with his coach at the time at Gladbach. “He gained in efficiency, which was not his strong point. That’s why he liked being on the side so as not to have a face-to-face encounter with the goalkeeper. In the extra sessions, there is more application, it has more of a killer side”noted Didier Deschamps during the last meeting in November, where Inter scored his second international goal against Gibraltar (14-0), two months after unlocking his counter against Ireland (2-0).

Achievements which sounded like small liberations for the 2022 world vice-champion. During his first ten capes, he still appeared a little tender: not necessarily the most comfortable in the one-point pattern of the Blues, while that his performances in Inter’s 3-5-2 – where he plays as a support point to the point of being the current best passer in Serie A – speak for him.