Icardi stripped of Inter captaincy

Mauro Icardi has been stripped of the captaincy at Inter Milan in favour of goalkeeper, Samir Handanovic.

Icardi has held the armband for the Nerazzurri since 2015 and has 122 goals for the club to date.

However, with increasing speculation linking him with a move away from the San Siro, as well as contract talks between the player and club being publicly difficult, Inter have decided to strip the Argentine of his role, instead passing the captain’s armband to veteran ‘keeper, Samir Handanovic.

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Inter broke the news with a post on their official Twitter page which translated to: “The club reports that the new team captain is Samir.”

Icardi has just two goals in his last nine outings across all competitions and has been left out of Inter’s Europa League squad to face Rapid Vienna this week, with manager Luciano Spaletti suggesting his displays were being hit by the contract issues at the weekend.

“Mauro is evidently seeing his performance affected by some situations that have been going on recently,” he said.

“He needs to free himself from the talk that is around him. The directors agreed to start talking about the contract, so now they need to go there and conclude it.”
Icardi has never demanded a contract renewal, according to agent

With so many rumours going around regarding Icardi’s contract situation, his agent and wife, Wanda Icardi, has been quick to defend her client, saying that no renewal demand has been made and that Inter are ‘the priority’.

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“Spalletti didn’t have it in for me,’ Wanda said. ‘I didn’t mention the renewal. When the club called me, it was to get to know each other better and talk about other things.

“I’d like to see Mauro more protected by the club because sometimes nasty things have come out from inside.

“The priority is Inter: I’ve never demanded a renewal. We’re in no hurry, he still has two years left on his contract.”