Former Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic says the club’s recent success, including reaching two Champions League finals in recent years, has its roots in the mentality established by Antonio Conte.
Handanovic believes Inter owe much of their current progress to Conte, who left the Milan club in 2021. In his assessment, the Italian manager was responsible for creating the winning mindset that continues to shape the team’s achievements.
“The winning Inter was created by Conte,” Handanovic said.
The former Slovenia international’s view is that Conte’s influence extended beyond the results achieved during his time in charge. He believes the manager helped build the mentality required for Inter to compete at the highest level, with that work providing the foundation for the club’s subsequent successes.
Inter have reached the Champions League final twice in recent years, an achievement Handanovic directly links to the culture established under Conte. For the former goalkeeper, those appearances represent the lasting impact of the manager’s period at the club, even though Conte departed in 2021.
Handanovic’s comments place particular emphasis on mentality rather than simply on individual performances or isolated results. His argument is that the character developed during Conte’s tenure helped turn Inter into a side capable of sustaining success and returning to the latter stages of Europe’s leading club competition.
Conte’s departure did not, in Handanovic’s view, bring an end to the influence of the ideas introduced during his time at Inter. Instead, the former goalkeeper sees the club’s progress in the years that followed as evidence that the foundations had already been laid.
Handanovic ended his playing career in 2023. Before retiring, he had been Inter’s goalkeeper, making him a direct observer of the club and of the mentality Conte sought to create.
His assessment therefore comes from someone who experienced that period from inside the squad. Handanovic’s central message is that Inter’s transformation into a team capable of competing in Champions League finals began with Conte’s work, while the club’s later achievements demonstrated the durability of that change.
The former goalkeeper’s remarks focus on the connection between Conte’s spell, his departure in 2021 and Inter’s performances in the years since. For Handanovic, the club’s recent successes are not separate from the Conte era: they are the outcome of the mentality he believes the manager established.
