Clear victory over Liverpool
©IMAGO
“It’s something unique, something extraordinary,” said Luca Percassi on Thursday evening before kick-off. The 43-year-old has been CEO of Atalanta BC since 2010 and experienced one of the most magical nights in the club’s history with his team in the surprising 3-0 win at Anfield against the highly favored Liverpool. Until 2016, the club from Bergamo was a classic midfield club that was repeatedly relegated and whose fans lived off the fact that they had won the cup in 1963. Then Percassi and Co. made perhaps the best decision in Atalanta’s history and hired coach Gian Piero Gasperini. Today La Dea, named after the Greek goddess Atalanta, who adorns the logo, is established in the top flight of Serie A and a serious candidate for victory in the Europa League.
“Playing a Europa League quarter-final at Anfield makes us very proud and achieving this result is something that will last. “You don’t always manage to win trophies, but if you can write history for a club like ours, that’s worth a lot,” said Gasperini himself after the game. The underdog story of his team is one that can also be applied to the 66-year-old himself. Gasperini, who has never won a title at professional level, was a youth coach at his training club Juventus for a long time and celebrated his greatest successes at another traditional club, Genoa CFC, until Atalanta took over.
Højlund sets standards: Atalanta’s record departures
Roberto Gagliardini | Inter | Ablöse: €20.5 million
© IMAGO
Saison 17/18
Stand: April 2024
Timothy Castagne | Leicester City | Transfer fee: €20.9 million
© TM/IMAGO
Saison 20/21
Gianluca Mancini | Roma | Transfer fee: €21 million
© IMAGO
Saison 20/21
Amad Diallo | Man United | Transfer fee: €21.3 million
© IMAGO
Saison 20/21
Bryan Cristante | Rome | Ablöse: €22 million
© IMAGO
Saison 19/20
Andrea Conti | Milan | Ablöse: €24 million
© IMAGO
Saison 17/18
Robin Gosens | Inter | Transfer fee: €27.4 million
© IMAGO
Saison 23/24
Alessandro Bastoni | Inter | Transfer fee: €31.1 million
© IMAGO
Saison 17/18
Franck Kessie | Milan | Transfer fee: €32 million
© IMAGO
Saison 19/20
Dejan Kulusevski | Juventus | Transfer fee: €37 million
© IMAGO
Saison 19/20
Cristian Romero | Tottenham | Transfer fee: €50 million
© IMAGO
Saison 22/23
In 2007, after more than ten years of absence, he led the Grifoni back to Serie A and even into the Europa League with Diego Milito and Thiago Motta on the field. As he did today in Bergamo, Gasperini used modern game elements in Genoa such as high pressing and dynamic switching and easily combined them from the defensive back three with man marking, which is so important for La Dea’s game. Progressive elements in Italian football were rare at that time; tried and tested methods were preferred. Until the upswing in recent years, the Serie A clubs on the international stage were a shadow of their original selves for a long time and the league was rapidly moving towards insignificance. The fact that this has changed drastically is also due to Gasperini – he was already considered a failure in autumn 2011.
In the summer he took the big leap to Inter Milan and wanted to breathe new life into the former triple winner, who had quickly fallen off the podium after José Mourinho’s departure. The club bosses gave the experiment just five games, then Gasperini had to leave again after four defeats – including at home in the Champions League against Trabzonspor (0:1) and against newly promoted Novara (1:3). It was only in Genoa that he really had time to implement his vision of football and his distinctive system, where he worked again from 2013 to 2016 – and thus attracted Atalanta’s interest.
In June 2016, Gasperini signed in Bergamo and promptly reached fourth place. Since then, Atalanta’s worst result of the season was eighth place in the 2021/22 season. The team came third three times and qualified for the premier class; in the pandemic-related final tournament in 2020, it only ended in the quarter-finals when the Lombards very unfortunately lost 1:2 against the eventual finalists PSG. In 2019/20 and 2020/21, Atalanta scored 100 goals this season across all competitions, establishing a reputation as one of the most exciting teams in Europe. In particular, the intensive use of full-backs and rail players is likely to have a significant impact on the development of modern football – just ask Xabi Alonso what he thinks about it.
Atalanta: Top scouting and one of the best youth academies in Italy
Gasperini not only has a good feel for how his team needs to play. Together with former sports director Giovanni Sartori and his successor Tony D’Amico, he is also characterized by always finding players on the transfer market who fit perfectly into this system and by exploiting the strengths of his own academy.
“They have a very good youth team, one of the best in Italy and one of the best scouting departments in the world,” says Jatin Dietl, Area Manager Italy at Transfermarkt. “And above all, they have been playing a similar style of football for years, so their scouts and the sports director know exactly what qualities a player needs to have in order to survive in Bergamo. There is also a calm atmosphere and no great pressure, which helps the players to grow and develop in peace.”
Scalvini & Co.: Most valuable players from the Atalanta youth system
Davide Zappacosta – Market value: €6 million
© IMAGO
Current team: Atalanta
Stand: April 2024
Nicolò Cambiaghi – Market value: 7.5 Mio. €
© IMAGO
Current team: Empoli
Caleb Okoli – Market value: €8 million
© IMAGO
Current team: Frosinone
Musa Barrow – Market value: €8.5 million
© IMAGO
Current team: Al-Taawoun
Andrea Colpani – Market value: €15 million
© IMAGO
Current team: Monza
Marco Carnesecchi – Marktwert: €15 million
© IMAGO
Current team: Atalanta
Matteo Ruggeri – Marktwert: €15 million
© IMAGO
Current team: Atalanta
Amad Diallo – Market value: €18 million
© IMAGO
Current team: Man Utd
Franck Kessié – Market value: €20 million
© IMAGO
Current team: Al-Ahli
Manuel Locatelli – Market value: €33 million
© IMAGO
Current team: Juventus
Giorgio Scalvini – Market value: €45 million
© IMAGO
Current team: Atalanta
Dejan Kulusevski – Market value: €55 million
© IMAGO
Current team: Tottenham
Gaetano Scirea, Roberto Donadoni and Riccardo Montolivo are just three of the big names who played for Atalanta in their youth. With Inter defender Alessandro Bastoni, Tottenham attacker Dejan Kulusevski and the currently most valuable player in the Atalanta squad, Giorgio Scalvini, the academy has also produced today’s top players. Cristian Romero, Franck Kessié, Filippo Inzaghi, Robin Gosens and Rasmus Højlund are among the players who came to Bergamo young and developed at Atalanta in such a way that the top clubs took notice and sometimes paid large sums of money. The Danish striker brought Atalanta record earnings of €73.9 million when he joined Manchester United last summer. After a year in the club. The bet of paying a high transfer fee to Sturm Graz because they knew what potential Højlund had once again paid off.
Even if this does not apply to Højlund, another quality of Gasperini is that he is able to convince players of his project in the long term and thus create consistency in the squad. And this despite the fact that the club, which has been in the black for years, was in the bottom third of Serie A for a long time. Even at times when Gosens, Papu Gómez, Duván Zapata Josip Ilicic and Luis Muriel caused terror in opponents’ defenses internationally. In 2019, when Manchester City faced Atalanta, Pep Guardiola compared the game against Gasperini’s team to a visit to the dentist.
For Scamacca & Co.: Atalanta can now pay high transfer fees
The aim of not only convincing at the national level, but perhaps actually playing for the Europa League title this year, was already evident in the summer transfer phase. Inspired by the Højlund millions, Atalanta invested more in individual players than ever before in the club’s history: El Bilal Touré, who had previously had a lot of bad luck with injuries, came from Almería for 29.1 million euros and Gianluca Scamacca returned for 25.5 million. Euro returned to Italy after an unsatisfactory spell at West Ham. The 25-year-old striker scored a brace at Anfield.
At a glance: Atalanta’s record arrivals/record departures
“Scamacca always had a lot of talent, but didn’t bring it to the pitch consistently,” explains Italy expert Dietl. “On the one hand, because he often suffered from minor injuries, but the eccentric attacker was also repeatedly accused of having character problems. This season, however, he scores every 123 minutes and is therefore being asked intensively for the Squadra Azzurra with a view to the European Championships in Italy, where there is a shortage of strikers. It is no coincidence that he is taking the next step under Gasperini. The Atalanta coach knows which buttons to push with his players so that they can deliver top performances in his team. Another example is Charles De Ketelaere, who flopped at Milan, but has caught on in Bergamo and for whom the purchase option for 22 million is likely to be drawn – the club’s next sign of respect.
If Scamacca continues to score, it will only be a matter of time before the eyes of the next highest level of clubs move in his direction. The only 20-year-old defender Scalvini or the extremely dangerous midfielder Teun Koopmeiners should have no shortage of offers next summer. But while Scalvini could be the next player who decides to stay in Bergamo for a longer period of time, the Dutchman, who has already expressed his desire to move, is virtually certain to leave. Maybe then they will say goodbye to their own fans with the first “silverware” in over 60 years.
Liverpool shouldn’t be written off, after all they lost 5-0 to the Reds at the Gewiss Stadium in 2020. On the other hand, Atalanta showed once again in Anfield that it is capable of beating any opponent. In the semi-final the opponent would be Benfica or Olympique Marseille (first leg 2-1) – and in the final Bayer 04 Leverkusen with Xabi Alonso might be waiting.
To home page