If Atalanta, recent winners of the Europa League, and only fifth in the Serie A Italian league, symbolises the best of Italian football and can be considered the only truly European Italian club, there must be a reason (or more than one).
In fact, when Gian Piero Gasperini took over as coach of the North of Italy-based team less than a decade ago, he inherited a team that had finished only fourth last in the previous season one step away from Serie B.
Atalanta’s rise within the closed circuit of Italian Serie A
In a championship (the Italian one) particularly refractory to the rise of the small-sized teams, and which in a few years would have witnessed the downsizing and even the disappearance of some of those, such as Palermo, Chievo and Sampdoria; Atalanta‘s rise was destined instead to become a significant and lasting thing.
In just two years, Gasperini (66) led the team to fourth place with 72 points won, bringing Atalanta to the first Champions League qualification in their history. The growth, being slow but steady, hasn’t betrayed expectations. Three Coppa Italia finals lost in the Gasperini era: such an achievement but a great regret as well for the coach who wanted to win a major trophy and deliver it to his people.
This led to the undisputed monopoly of Juventus and the Milan teams being slightly but slowly undermined, simultaneously with the decade of the revival of Napoli and some shaky attempts by the Roman teams.
Gasperini and the key players behind Atalanta
Gasperini must, however, share its merit with many partners. First of all, a mention needs to be made to the Percassi family, long-time leaders of the club, and sporting director Giovanni Sartori, capable of buying promising young players and moulding them at the pace of Atalanta.
The city of Bergamo, a warm city in the cold north of Italy, known for its hard-working people of few words, has also consistently taken part in the Atalanta dream. A city hit hard by the Covid pandemic, and capable of getting back up with dignity, which pushed the team during the highest peak of their rise. That was a Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint Germain in the summer of 2020 and that almost reached the unimaginable.
Talent Development and Sustainable Growth behind the triumph
And so, the Europa League ride, which offered pitfalls such as Liverpool, Bayer Leverkusen, as well as AS Roma and AC Milan, more emblazoned teams, was even more surprising.
And it is no coincidence that CIES, the organization based in Switzerland, whose mission is to promote the sustainable development of football worldwide, has certified Atalanta as the Italian team that best nurtures its talent, selling their young players abroad with the highest profit (250 million euros compared to the 134 acquired by AS Roma).
In September, Atalanta makes their comeback to the renewed format of the Champions League, and why not: pursue the dream of an even more prestigious standing in the Serie A Championship, despite the word scudetto being (and realistically rightly so) still a taboo.
Image Credit: Deposit Photos
