The Parable of Inter Milan

Fast money from China led a storied team back to the top of Italian soccer. Now the money has dried up, and its title-winning squad is breaking apart.

This is a preview of the On Soccer With Rory Smith newsletter, which is now reserved for Times subscribers. Sign up to get it in your inbox weekly. The first alarm rang in February, a warning from thousands of miles away. Jiangsu Suning was one of the mainstays of that strange period, five or six years ago, when soccer awoke — almost overnight — to discover that China had arrived, its pockets bottomless and its ambitions unchecked, intent on inverting the world.