Derby della Madonnina

Derby della Madonnina

The Derby della Madonnina is a special football match between two big teams from Milan, Italy: Inter Milan and AC Milan. People also call it the Derby di Milano or the Milan Derby.

The name comes from the Madonnina statue on top of the Milan Cathedral. Both teams have long histories in Italian football.

These matches happen at least twice every year during the league season. They also sometimes meet in other competitions like the Coppa Italia, Champions League, and Supercoppa Italiana. Both teams play in the same stadium, San Siro. Inter fans usually sit in the northern end of the stadium, called Curva Nord, while AC Milan fans sit in the southern end, called Curva Sud.

On 13 December 1899, Herbert Kilpin and others started the Milan Cricket and Football Club. The team played cricket and football and grew important. They won their first big prize, the "King's Medal," in January 1900 and later won three national leagues in 1901, 1906, and 1907.

On 9 March 1908, some players disagreed about foreign players and started a new team called Football Club Internazionale. The first big match between these two teams was in 1908 in Switzerland, and AC Milan won 2–1. At first, they played only sometimes, but since the 1926–27 season, they have played each other every year.

Inter won the first top league title in 1929–1930. They won again in 1938 and 1940 with great player Giuseppe Meazza. Between 1928 and 1938, Inter won 10 times, and AC Milan did not win any matches against them.

In 1951, AC Milan won the league for the first time since 1907. The 1960s were exciting with great players like Sandro Mazzola for Inter and Gianni Rivera for AC Milan. Both teams did well in Europe during this time.

AC Milan did very well from the late 1980s to the mid-2000s with famous players like Marco van Basten and Paolo Maldini. Inter won the league in 1988–89 with players like Lothar Matthäus.

In 2006, Inter won the league title after a big problem with Juventus. Inter kept winning titles until 2009–10 when they won all three big tournaments in one year. AC Milan won the league in 2010–11 with new players like Zlatan Ibrahimović.

Between 2011–12 and 2019–20, both teams had hard times, but Inter won the league in 2020–21, passing AC Milan. AC Milan caught up the next year. In 2022–23, Inter won the Italian Super Cup against AC Milan. In 2023–24, Inter won the league title in a match against AC Milan, passing them for the first time.