Zanetti sees greatness in Icardi

The club captain dismissed any notion of becoming the Nerazzurri coach once he hangs up his boots and is focused on recovering from his Achilles injury

Javier Zanetti has predicted that new Inter attacker Mauro Icardi will achieve great things at San Siro.

The 20-year-old completed his switch on July 10 and will link up with the likes of Fredy Guarin and Alvaro Pereira in the Nerazzurri squad in pre-season, and the club captain has laid down the gauntlet for his new team-mate.

"Now he’s ours. I see a great future for him, he’s a No.9 in the penalty area with a talent for scoring goals," Zanetti told TyCSports. "He is also from Argentina, we must take advantage of his potential."

Zanetti suffered a serious Achilles injury during the Nerazzurri's 1-0 defeat to Palermo in April, but he is adamant that his playing career is not complete and revealed his lack of interest in stepping into the Giuseppe Meazza hotseat any time soon.

"I have never been tempted to be a coach, I’d rather have a role as a director, in which I’m always with the team. I hope to do my job, just as I did on the pitch," the Argentine added.

"I had decided even before my injury that I would play one more season. It’s a serious injury, now I hope to recover as good as possible and to return quickly to playing football, that’s what I like the most. Already at the end of the month, I will join my Inter in New York."

The veteran defender also spoke out on which are the best two coaches he has worked under during his long career, with Marcelo Bielsa and Jose Mourinho being namechecked by the Inter skipper.

"Bielsa and Mourinho are two masters," Zanetti added. "They are beyond average. They are two winners, very careful with the details. They have clear ideas and I think they are similar."

Zanetti signed a one-year contract extension in June, meaning he will have spent 19 years at San Siro by the end of that deal, having made his Inter debut back in 1995.

Andrea Stramaccioni led Inter to a desperately disappointing ninth-placed finish last season, which saw him dismissed at the end of the campaign and replaced by former Napoli boss Walter Mazzarri.