Jannik Sinner and Inter change the'Italian: "unplayable" in the vocabulary

“Ingiocabili” is not only one of the catchphrases of 2025 that is drawing to a close. In the meantime, it has also become a recognized word in the Italian vocabulary, and its definition brings one right back to the two topics that all sports fans might be thinking about. It is in fact Jannik Sinner on the one hand, on the strength of his very long winning streak in tennis that only Carlos Alcaraz has partially managed to stem, and Inter on the other. In the case of the Nerazzurri team, however, there is also a strong sarcastic component in addition to the literal one that distinguishes the lemma.

The operation bears the signature of the Osservatorio della Lingua Italiana, which, as it does every year, for 2025 has compiled a list of words that have entered common usage so overwhelmingly that they have become a sort of emblem of the year itself. Thus, in the book covering 2025, the Treccani has included the term “unplayable”. Here is the definition: “Said of athlete or team so strong that it cannot be played against; unbeatable”. The Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, moreover, pointed out that the term pays homage to Sinner himself, in a year that ended as world No. 2 but was marked by successes (among others) at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the ATP Finals in Turin.

But, as soccer fans will well remember, there&#8217s more than just Sinner. The “word of the’year” is in fact quite inextricably linked also to Inter, and moreover by paradox not only to the Nerazzurri&#8217s victories but also to its defeats. It all stems from a Champions League match, which Simone Inzaghi&#8217s then team won 3-0 thanks to a Lautaro Martinez hat trick. It was Henrikh Mkhitaryan, however, in a post-match statement who uttered the term “unplayable” in reference to his team, turning it into a catchphrase that has survived from that Jan. 29 for the entire 2025 reaching into the last days of the’year.

Marco Enzo Venturini

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“It should not concern us much more – Mkhitaryan said at the time, when questioned about the possibility of a clash with Juventus or Milan in the round of 16 of the Champions League – We are Inter and, if we play as we know, we become unplayable”. And this definition of his has been systematically brought up again and again by detractors of the Nerazzurri over the course of the year.

So those who dislike Inter, especially on social media, have called it “unplayable” after the knockout in the Champions League final against PSG, but also after losing in the Coppa Italia to Milan or after the Scudetto went to Napoli. A fate that was spared Sinner, the ’other “unplayable” according to the Treccani, who also during 2025 was extremely successful but not invincible.