Zlatan Ibrahimovic Photo: VCG

The last Derby della Madonnina between Inter Milan and their city rivals AC Milan last month ended with a win for Inter and suspensions for Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Romelu Lukaku after the rival strikers came to blows.

There will be fireworks when they meet again in the league later this month on February 21, not least because for the first time in a decade the teams are battling it out at the top of the Serie A table.

That AC Milan are back in the race for the Scudetto is in part down to Ibrahimovic who appears to be defying Father Time in his second spell at the club. 

That his passions run so deep for the Rossoneri is interesting as he was also a star for the other team in the city. 

He is not the first and he will not be the last to swap sides and switch stripes. 

In fact there have been 26 to do so in the last 26 years, but not all with the success of the Swedish superhuman.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic



He might be the talisman of the title hopefuls but way back when the Swede was doing much the same for Inter. He played for them from 2006-09 and won the Serie A title three times while wearing the black and blue of the Nerazzuri.

"One who says that coronavirus had a bad idea to challenge him, is mentally stronger than all," former striker Christian Vieri said in October as Ibrahimovic battled COVID-19. 

Christian Vieri

The Australian-Italian would know as he turned out for both Milan sides in a career that saw him rack up loyalty points with the relocation companies. Vieri arrived at Inter in 1999 having played for eight clubs in his first eight years as a pro.

He signed because he wanted to play with a certain Brazilian striker and the pair hit it off in blue and black.

Vieri would spend six years in that stint at San Siro, with the end coming in bizarre circumstances that saw his phone tapped by president Massimo Moratti over another Brazilian, the troubled Adriano.

The Italy international did not go far and spent a season with AC Milan, never hitting the heights he did for their city rivals.

Ronaldo

The man who Vieri wanted to play with was the best footballer on the planet at the time and the worst of his injury trouble was still in the future.

"O Fenomeno" had arrived at Inter in 1997 and his first season ended with the side bringing the UEFA Cup back to Milan. Ronaldo was simply unstoppable in the final, where Inter beat Lazio in the final.

More goals would come, as would the injuries that never left him the same player, but he was a club legend by the time he left in 2002. Five years later he would be back at San Siro with AC Milan, a fuller figure but no less capable of filling fans hearts with joy despite the loss of his electrifying pace. He was a firm favorite in his single season in red and black.

Roberto Baggio

Back in the 1990s, Baggio was one of the biggest stars in the game and won his first Serie A title with Milan in the 1995-96 season. He was in their red and black from 1995 to 1997, before leaving after falling out of favor under then Milan coach Arrigo Sacchi. In 1998 he moved to Inter Milan and showed Inter what they were missing.

Hernan Crespo

Argentine striker Crespo will be remembered as a flop by fans of the English Premier League for his time at Chelsea, but that could not be further from the truth for supporters of either Milan side.

He first played for Inter, joining them in the 2002-03 season, before popping up at their city rivals in 2004-05. That season will be remembered for their dramatic loss to Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League final, with Crespo's first-half goal ultimately counting for nothing.

Inter called again in the 2008-09 season, for a third spell at Milan sides, winning a hat trick of Serie A titles with the club.

Andrea Pirlo

Another player who was on the pitch when Liverpool came back in Istanbul, Pirlo has called it the nadir of his career, but long before he was a legend at AC Milan he was an Inter player.

Pirlo was a willowy No.10 when he came through the ranks at Inter, and it never quite worked out for him despite how highly rated he was. His three years with the club ended in 2001 and he swapped sides straight away.

A decade followed in AC Milan colors and Pirlo was key to a team that went to the UEFA Champions League final in three years between 2003 and 2007. 

Pirlo reinvented himself from a No.10 to a deep-lying playmaker, "the best holding midfielder I have ever seen," according to then AC Milan boss Carlo Ancelotti.

Pirlo would go on to even better things, aging like a fine wine from one of his own vineyards. He is now Juve boss and hoping to derail the title chances of both of his former clubs.

Clarence Seedorf



The Dutchman played for AC Milan for a decade between 2002 and 2012, but before that he was another who wore the black and blue stripes of Inter Milan.

Seedorf played for Inter from 2000 to 2002, a rare period in his career where he did not win the UEFA Champions League. 

To this day, Seedorf remains the only footballer to have become a European champion with three different clubs -  Ajax as a teen, then with Real Madrid and then twice more when he was alongside Pirlo at AC Milan.