Inter Milan and FC Barcelona: 19 players in common

FC Barcelona and Inter Milan meet in Tuesday's Champions League encounter at the Giuseppe Meazza. Two of the biggest clubs in Europe are always going to have playing connections, in this case as many as nineteen.

Two from Milan to Barcelona

Curiously the two players that Barça signed directly from Inter arrived in the same season, 2009/10. These were striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and full back Maxwell. The Swede only spent one season in the Catalan capital, while the Brazilian was here for three.

Six from Barcelona to Milan

There has been more movement in the opposite direction: Francesco Coco, who joined Inter in 2002 after a single year at Barça, Edgar Davids, on a half-year loan deal in 2003/04; Samuel Eto’o, definitively sold in 2009, and Martín Montoya, who spent 2015/16 on loan in Lombardy.

Later in 2018, midfielder Rafinha went to Inter on a similar loan deal, while Chilean Arturo Vidal was sold to Inter in 2020.

Shared legends 

Finally, there are eleven other players who appeared for both clubs but not one immediately after the other. These include some huge names, like Barça's first ever Ballon d'Or winner Luis Suárez, one of the most prolific goalscorers of all time, Ronaldo Nazario, and one of the heroes of France's 1998 World Cup winning squad, Laurent Blanc.

Other common denominators between Barça and Inter are Scarone, Szegedi, Luis Figo, Quaresma, Thiago Motta, Alexis Sánchez and Philippe Coutinho.