#4 Javier Zanetti
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Javier Zanetti cemented his place in Italian football for nearly twenty years, and during his tenure as captain, Inter Milan joined footballing folklore with five consecutive titles, certifying their status as an Italian powerhouse. The Argentine made over 800 appearances and holds the record for the highest all-time appearances by a non-Italian player for an Italian club and his 860 appearances puts him at the top of Inter’s all-time appearances list.
The stalwart was the rock in the ever changing Inter Milan team and played under over nineteen managers with an average of one manager a season, and through an influx of new formations and new tactics, the Argentine remained in the squad. What’s more surprising is despite all the managerial changes, Zanetti was never displaced as team captain and remained as Inter Milan’s El Capitan since he took over from Giuseppe Bergomi in 1999 until his retirement in 2014.
As a captain, the 43-year-old lifted 15 out of the 16 trophies that Inter Milan won during his 19-year tenure with the club, and after years under Juventus and AC Milan’s shadow, Inter finally had their moment in the sun. His motive was to help his teammates and lay a path for them to follow – a quintessential feature of any influential captain in the game – something he did to perfection.
