CLUB FOCUS
Gagliardini (Internazionale €22m). And
those are just the most obvious names
that spring to mind, players on whom the
club made a fabulous profit.
A flourishing youth-team sector,
however, does not explain everything.
There are at least two other key elements
in the Atalanta success story, namely
owner Percassi and current coach Gian
Piero Gasparini.
Percassi is a remarkable figure, a rare
talent in that he moved from being a
footballer himself – with Atalanta until
the age of 23 – to becoming a highly
successful entrepreneur, heading a
business empire that involves strategic
alliances with multinational brands such
as Benetton, Lego, Starbucks, Zara, Calvin
Klein, Swatch, Nike and Kiko, as well as
many others in the cosmetics, building
and foods industries.
Percassi’s shrewd handling of the club,
left largely to his managing director son,
Luca, has seen Atalanta develop step
by step, always balancing the books
and rarely indulging in expensive player
buys. Not for nothing Atalanta last year
recorded a third consecutive annual
profit: namely €24.4m in 2018, €26.7m
in 2017 and €300,000 in 2016. The
Bergamo club also had the lowest annual
turnover of all the teams in the knockout
stage of this year’s Champions League.
If the club’s youth-team tradition and
the business nous of Percassi have laid
solid foundations, Atalanta have also
been helped by impressive appointments,had scored against Juventus, and one
of the club’s youth coaches, Cesare
Prandelli. Like Lippi, Prandelli was also
destined to lead Italy’s national team one
day, even if he did not, like Lippi, win the
World Cup.
I tell this little story just to point
out that Atalanta, while they are
rightly referred to by Italian media
as a “fairytale” team, are no johnny-
come-lately outfit.
The Bergamo side, often called the
“Queen of the Provincials”, are clearly
a club with a certain pedigree.
Founded in 1907, Atalanta BC havebeen a regular relegation battler in
Serie A throughout the last century.
Occasionally, though, they would play
way above their stations.
For example, there was a remarkable
campaign in 1987-88 when Atalanta,
then in Serie B but runners-up in the
previous season’s Coppa Italia, reached
the semi-finals of the European Cup-
winners Cup before going out to Belgian
side Mechelen.
Back in 1963 Atalanta actually won
the Italian Cup, beating Torino in the
Final, but for all that they have, until
very recently, been an honest broker,
struggling down at the wrong end of the
Serie A table, one of those provincial
sides that has never come close to
winning the title.
All that, of course, has now changed.
So, where and when did the Atalanta
“miracle” begin?
You could maybe point to the early
1990s when the current owner, Antonio
Percassi, persuaded talented Como
youth-team coach Mino Favini to takeover Atalanta’s already flourishing
academy structure. Under Favini,
who died last year, Atalanta laid the
foundations for producing a conveyor
belt of talented youngsters who were
regularly sold on for a handsome profit.
In the last three seasons alone the
club has cashed in on Andrea Conti (to
Milan for €24m), Frank Kessie (Milan
€28m), Bryan Cristante (Roma €21m),
Leonardo Spinazzola (Juventus €25m),
Gianluca Mancini (Roma, €25m), Mattia
Caldara (Milan €25m) and RobertoAtalanta, while they are rightly referred
to by Italian media as a “fairytale” team,
are no johnny-come-lately outfitThrashed...Duvan
Zapata scores in the
7-2 win at LecceShrewd...owner
Antonio Percassi