Article by Daniel Scorpie – Published on Thursday, 08 January 2026, 12:22 / Updated on Thursday, 08 January 2026 12:23
The success at Parma (2-0), against the team that launched him as a coach in Serie A, is the sixth in a row in the championship and completes a circle. In the nine months since the game that marked the turning point in the race to save his first team from relegation in his senior coaching career (with the miraculous comeback from 0-2 down Inter) until last night's victory, in his former home, Cristi Chivu she carried her pregnancy to term, beyond all the expectations of the most skeptical.
Inter is not mathematically the winter champion, because Milan also has to play tonight, with Șucu and Stanciu's Genoa, and there are still arrears from next week to complete the championship round, but Chivu has already won the respect of the rivals, who have already taken the fear of the leader.
Although he lost both derbies with Napoli and Milan, the real contenders for the Scudetto, and is trying to recover from the syndrome of matches with giants, his team commands, for now, in all chapters in Serie A, less only in the efficiency in converting the tide of opportunities created into goals.
Even so, Inter have deployed the most prolific attack, thanks to the highest number of shots on goal. 40 goals, average of 2.2 scored per game. Of the 21 wins since Chivu's installation, 13 were at least two difference. Cristi is not at all a follower of half measures (no equal in the championship, only Roma has not drawn), already having 14 successes and one point more than Simone Inzaghi had collected, with one game left to play in the round. Nor of the Allegrian style, “corto-muso” (successes at the limit).
Chivu can be winter champion ahead of the champion
If the Nerazzurri also win away from Lecce, Chivu reaches +4 compared to the score of the coach who fled to Saudi Arabia. And he can also surpass Simone's goal difference (he is now 40-15, Inzahi stopped at 47-20). He also increased his lead over the champion Napoli to four points (only 2-2 with Verona yesterday), which will host “Giuseppe Meazza” on Sunday, having the opportunity for revenge and an escape at +7!
I don't think it's a small thing for a quasi-rookie, even if, as Mutu quips, “he hasn't achieved anything to deserve to be coach of the year”. But how many technicians have we had so far who dream of being first in the middle of an endurance race like Serie A and going into the new year in the top eight in Europe? OK, Inzaghi's Inter have played in two Champions League finals, but they cannot fail to recognize Chivu's merits, if enough of the opponents' coaches have already done so anyway.
Cristi Chivu, Inter coach/ photo: Guliver/GettyImages
Cristi stood out for the clear style in which he left his mark on Inter. Through aggressive, vertical and faster football as in the “Inzaghi era”, with first halves reminding of how the Nerazzurri with Conte at the helm devoured their opponents until the break.
By the way he managed to change the defense (not the system), yesterday in Parma proving, once again, that Akanji and Bisseck can no longer be removed from the team. How he thinks and focuses on the turn-over (the rotation of the starters), unlike Inzaghi, who squeezed the starters (many of 30+), like lemons in a blender!
“Sooner or later, you will win the Golden Bank, but you already have the Golden Microphone for positive communication”
Cristi allows himself to rest players – for example, for Sunday's derby – because he has quality back-up: Zielinski has been brought off the dead line and resembles the Napoli midfielder, sending Mkhitaryan to the bench more often. Likewise, in the offensive, where Bonny and Pio Esposito, always come from the sideline with a plus. Only the absence of Dumfries cannot be filled, but Chivu is patient with Luis Henrique, as he is with Sucic in the middle.
And besides the professional side, Chivu brought to Italian football something that was missing, which the coaching world is not used to there: oratorical talent. His speech is never banal, excludes polemics and does not consist of repeated records like used vinyl. A Sky Sport reporter said it after the Parma match: “Sooner or later, you'll win the 'Golden Bank', but as far as I'm concerned, you've already won the Golden Microphone for the positivity of your communication! Because this world needs the way you communicate.”
Nine months have passed and Chivu closed a circle of 43 games (30 with the Nerazzurri), between two Parma – Inter, played on different benches. He carried out a difficult task very well, to save the “Crusaders” and to command now with the Nerazzurri, with a team that did not benefit from the huge amount of money invested in acquisitions by the Scudetto rivals and that reset the virus chip with the cruel disappointments at the end of last season.
It remains to be seen how Chivu's child will grow and walk further, but the genes and upbringing received are of a champion who knows what it means to win the Triple!
