Icardi risks captaincy over fan slurs: Zanetti

MILAN: Inter Milan striker Mauro Icardi could be stripped of the club captaincy after incensing the club’s hardline fan base with comments in a recently published autobiography.

“We will take measures,” Inter’s vice-president and legendary former captain Javier Zanetti said amid a growing row surrounding the Argentina international on Sunday.

“The fans are crucial for us and everyone should respect them.”

Icardi may be Inter’s main source of goals, but comments in his recently-published biography ‘Sempre Avanti, la mia storia segreta’ (Forever onwards, my secret story) prompted the ‘ultra’ fans who usually occupy the Curva Nord (North End) of the club’s shared San Siro ground to demand he be stripped of the captaincy.

It followed Icardi’s description in his autobiography of a post-match altercation with ‘ultra’ supporters following a 3-1 defeat at Sassuolo in February 2015.

Icardi claims in the account he openly challenged ultra supporters after they snatched the shirt and shorts he had offered to a young Inter supporter and threw them back in his face.

Icardi said he was “hailed a hero” in the dressing room after the incident, claiming he had reminded the irate fans that he had “grown up in one of the areas of South America with the biggest crime rates”.

Icardi added: “How many are there (fans)? Fifty? One hundred? Two hundred? Ok, I will bring over 100 criminals from Argentina and they will kill them on the spot. Then we’ll see.”

Curva Nord fans dismissed Icardi’s account of the events and were so incensed they issued a statement to the Italian media on Sunday morning.