Out of a shameful moment in the history of the Milan derby came one of its most beautiful images. The last meeting of Milan and Inter in the Champions League, in April 2005, was paused by the referee after fans created a scene more reminiscent of Dante’s Inferno than a sporting event. Yet the legacy of this game is a story of camaraderie thanks to a split-second decision to press down on a shutter release button.
Against an apocalyptic backdrop of smoke and burning objects stood the Inter defender Marco Materazzi, with his elbow casually leaning on the shoulder of Milan’s midfielder Rui Costa. They stood together, watching the chaos unfold.
Eighteen years later, as the teams prepare to meet again on Wednesday in the Champions League semi-finals, the man who shot the image is musing on its meaning. Photographer Stefano Rellandini looks every inch the Milanese – eyes bright, shining through designer glasses – as he sits in his office in Paris where he works as the editor of Agence France Presse.
“Friendship,” he says. “That image reminds me that football is not just fighting between supporters. It’s not just money. It’s not just business. I know that players from different teams are friends, they eat together at restaurants and spend free time together. When I look at that picture, I’m reminded that football is the most beautiful game in the world.”
In this sense, the photograph is the spiritual cousin of John Varley’s iconic shot of Pelé and Bobby Moore, embracing after the England v Brazil game at the World Cup in 1970. Rellandini says he was drawn to this moment owing to the contrast in the two players, not just in their size, but also their personalities. “I was looking through my camera searching for a picture that could show the atmosphere and what was going on at that time. Suddenly, I stopped because I saw Materazzi and Rui Costa next to each other.
“Materazzi didn’t have the best reputation. He was a really hard player and would win at all costs, which we would all see later at the 2006 World Cup. Rui Costa was more of an artist, more gentle – the way he played football was poetic. So the first thing I thought was: ‘Wow, how strange. Here are two different players from different teams with two completely different footballing styles stood next to each other as friends.’”
Fashion photographer Joe Quigg agrees that the chemistry between the players is what makes the shot. “If I’m shooting two male models, that’s exactly the vibe I would try to get from them: there’s a subtle friendliness in the posing. There is usually a dull green swamping football images but there’s so much tenderness in the pose here. A pause from normality that reminded me of war photography. It could almost be the Christmas truce of 1914.”
The quarter-final itself was far from a truce. Some of the best players in the world were on the pitch – Andriy Shevchenko, Kaká, Adriano, Andrea Pirlo, Paolo Maldini, Christian Vieri, Javier Zanetti and Juan Sebastián Verón – with Roberto Mancini and Carlo Ancelotti adding stardust from the touchline. The quality of football, however, did not match this abundance of riches.
Milan were at “home” in the first leg, which they won 2-0 thanks to goals from set pieces. The second half was littered with yellow cards and fouls, which disrupted the flow of the game and served as a prelude to the bad-tempered return leg. In the away-goals era, Inter had missed out on the chance to go into their “home” leg with an advantage.
Far from being an example of brotherly footballing love, the second leg began on a violent note. After just three minutes Shevchenko headbutted Materazzi who, true to form, collapsed in theatrical fashion. The referee missed it but the Inter fans began to rage at the injustice.
Things went from bad to worse for Inter when, after 29 minutes, Shevchenko put Milan 1-0 up. The player who probably shouldn’t have been on the pitch thundered the ball into the top corner of Francesco Toldo’s net. Inter needed to score four but, when Esteban Cambiasso did put the ball in the net in the 71st minute, it was ruled for a perceived foul on goalkeeper Dida by the Inter striker, Julio Cruz. The Inter fans erupted, flares and water bottles raining on to the pitch.
At this point, Rellandini’s thoughts moved away from the game and towards his own safety. “Luckily I was on the opposite side but I was worried for my colleagues,” he says. “I remember Dida was hit by the objects and the flares. I’ve been in the same situation several times and it’s not really nice – you don’t feel you’re really safe as they throw all sorts of objects down from the upper stands. The Inter fans were really angry at the Cambiasso goal being disallowed, so they just exploded. When they are angry like that, you need to pay attention.”
As well as worrying about his fellow photographers, Rellandini was concerned about his cameras and laptop. “Most photographers would be thinking about their equipment more than their own health,” he says. “It costs a lot of money to replace this stuff!” He was working for Reuters, shooting pictures and then editing them pitchside on his laptop before sending them to the news desk to distribute around the world.
The players were taken off the pitch while the authorities tried to bring some calm to the stadium. “They came back after about 20 minutes but the game didn’t start again,” says Rellandini. “As a photographer, you have an instinct to know what’s going on. I knew there was something strange happening – everything seemed almost stuck.”
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“I started to take some pictures because the players were there against this backdrop of the smoke and flares. I thought it was the best moment to illustrate what was going on during the break in play. As I was doing this, Materazzi put his elbow on Rui Costa for a few seconds which said to me: ‘Time to take a rest, this is crazy’ – so I made sure I took a picture of that image.
“I took the images off the memory card, put them on my laptop and looked through all of the photographs. I’d taken between 800 and 900 photographs that day and, with around 50 or 60 in this sequence. There was just one frame with Materazzi and Rui Costa in that famous pose with the elbow resting. If you Google the game, you’ll see plenty of similar images, but mine is the only one that has that precise moment.”
Rellandini filed the image and publications from around the world started to run it. He had no idea the photograph would speak to so many people for so long. “I didn’t realise straight away. I used it because it felt a bit different to the other pictures. You don’t recognise straight away if you have an iconic picture as a photographer. You are too concentrated on the events you are covering. The most important thing is shooting pictures – catch the right moment, the key picture of the match – and then you can see later, days after if clients use it and the wider audience like it. The image captures this narrative that we can interpret in a multitude of ways, depending on our knowledge or allegiances.”
Rellandini was surprised that his was the only image that captured the moment so precisely. “You have a lot of photographers at a Champions League quarter-final. It shows you that it really was just for a second and I managed to capture it.”
How does he feel to see it being used 18 years later, with people even Photoshopping it to include current players? “I’m really proud and happy that a lot of people like it [and] continue to do so year after year. When I search out of curiosity I see that there are now T-shirts, posters and paintings of it. Even Materazzi posted it on his Twitter! It is a bit of a shame at the way it is sometimes used, without a credit, which makes it feel like it is an anonymous author but I know it is me behind it.
“It takes a lot of effort going to all the matches and covering them under the rain, in the cold where people aren’t really looking after you. I’ve covered so many football events, shot millions of pictures and having one that comes up and goes to the heavens, you have to be grateful.”
Rellandini is modest about the photo – “I’ve never printed it for myself or got it framed and hung it on my wall,” he says – but, as the teams prepare to meet again in the Champions League, he is planning to mark his contribution to the history of the Milan derby. “I’ll probably buy one of the T-shirts for my daughter.”
