Atalanta was champion of the Italian Cup in 1963. For generations, this memory accompanied the fans, who saw their club unable to lift the second cup in its history, until this Wednesday they won the Europa League.
Nigerian striker Ademolo Lookman’s three goals toppled Bayer Leverkusen, unbeaten so far this season, in the final in Dublin.
But above all, these goals rewarded an emblematic ‘Calcio’ club that in recent years has assumed a more prominent role in continental football due to its attractive style of play.
Mythological but still without great tradition
Since its creation in 1907, Atalanta [que faz referência em seu nome à heroína da mitologia grega criada pela deusa caçadora Ártemis] She was never champion of Italy. Until now, her retrospect was limited to one line, that 1963 Italian Cup that only older fans remember.
The club from Bergamo, a Lombard city with 120,000 inhabitants, is an anomaly in Italian football: it is competing in the 63rd season of Serie A, out of a total of 92 since the creation of the championship. Only nine clubs have more campaigns in the elite and they are all in regional capitals, which are much more populous, such as Milan, Turin, Rome or Florence.
To ‘Give’ [a Deusa, representada em seu escudo como um reflexo de sua ancestralidade mitológica] has not left the first division since 2012.
They are currently in fifth place in Serie A, two points off the podium, and finished in third place in the Italian championship for three consecutive years (2018, 2019 and 2020). In the 2020 Champions League, they reached the quarter-finals, when they lost 2-1 to PSG.
A former player as president and shareholder
Atalanta acquired a new dimension thanks to one of its former players, Antonio Percassi.
The former defender (who played 110 league games between 1971 and 1977) made his fortune, after hanging up his boots at the age of 25, in the real estate sector, opening Benetton stores and then Starbucks and Nike franchises in Italy, as well as shopping centers and launching the KIKO cosmetics chain.
First as president, Percassi bought the club in 2010 for 14 million euros at the time (around R$78 million at the current price) and gave it the financial stability it lacked. In February, for 500 million euros (R$2.78 billion), it transferred 55% of the capital to an American consortium led by Stephen Pagliuca, head of the investment fund Bain Capital and co-owner of the NBA team Boston Celtics.
Percassi, 70 years old, maintains a low profile, something that stands out in a country with leaders who like pompous statements like Aurelio De Laurentiis (Napoli) or Claudio Lotito (Lazio).
The brand of Gasperini
Atalanta’s real star is their coach, Gian Piero Gasperini. In charge since 2016, an eternity for a Serie A club, he is a reference who inspires many others through attacking football.
Before moving to Atalanta, Gasperini passed on his knowledge to Juventus’ youth teams. He graduated from Genoa and experienced failure at Inter Milan, where he was fired in September 2011 after just three games. Then he went to work at Palermo and returned to Genoa.
Demanding of his players and a supporter of the 3-4-3 formation, Gasperini, 65, is also famous for his incendiary statements, which can target referees, opposing coaches or journalists.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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