Now after all the dust settled and the hysteria of the moment has died down, it feels more appropriate to recap the best night in Atalanta’s long history. There’s so many ways you can take the narrative: first piece of silverware since the 60s, first Italian Europa League winner since the 90s, oldest manager to debut in a European final and win (that’s a stretch), dethroning the Invincibles who were on the brink of football immortality.
All good storylines, but they remain just that- storylines. Pieces of news that live on in the archives. When Atalanta is much more than that. Atalanta’s Europa League victory is the final culmination of a thoughtful, and patient project that isn’t just a piece of history, but a steam engine, placing importance on both past and future, that will keep rolling forward. Victory is the ultimate validation that the process is the right one.
And that’s the beauty of the project – its not even over. This isn’t a storybook arc where the good guys muster up enough energy for one final push at glory before coasting off into the sunset. Instead, Atalanta just levelled up – anxiously waiting to see where life takes them next.
None of its possible without Gian Piero Gasperini, the architect. Us armchairs give him flack multiple times per season for head scratching substitutions, unable to understand how we can’t break down an Udinese low block. But the mad scientist always stuck to his guns, curating the perfect brew of players and tactics after almost ten years of trying. All the legendary teams of Papu Gomez, Duvan Zapata, and Josip Ilicic were iterations buliding on top of each other morphing a charismatic attacking team that could eventually figured out how to sew it up at the back.
The offense would always figure it out, but the it took several attempts to find the right mix of defensive pieces to bring it all together. While Ademola Lookman set precedents in Europa League, and Ederson’s heroics may have slotted him into a starting role with Brazil, the defense deserves special attention – because that’s where the game was won to offset the equally brilliant Xabi Alonso. Sead Kolasinac was my signing of the season, hands down. He has some cosmic connection with Gasperini and understood exactly what needed to be done on defense, making the left side of the defense impenetrable. Thus leaving Isak Hien, the latest version of Gasperini’s bruising central center back to cleanly win his duels and make cleanup on aisle 9 an easy endeavor. And lest we forget, the one who wore the armband, Berat Djimsiti. The Albanian was reaching afterthought territory, but put in an heroic season, and has gotten better with age. Throw in the boy wonder Giorgio Scalvini, debatable whether he was playing centerback or midfielder, and Leverkusen didn’t have a sniff at goal all night.
Not only were Bayer Leverkusen only shut out twice all season, only one team held them under 1.0 expected goals in a match. Guess who? Any way you want to slice it, the defense set the stage for the final (and the tournament) to let the offense fly freely up field on the Lookman’s back.
The ambitious (and greedy) may now ask, what’s next after finally reaching the peak of what felt like an exhaustive eight year ascent up an infinite mountain. This feels like a perfect place to close the book on an illustrious saga, and if key management and coaches want to explore new adventures – you could hardly blame them.
You can easily see the Gasperini dilemma- what more does he have to offer Atalanta? He took him to heights unforeseen, and to use a bad business example – is he the founder ready to pass off the reigns of his billion dollar baby to a new management group? Selfishly you want him to stay, and if he does – he should really stay until he retires. But if he doesn’t stay, he’ll always be there. Atalanta is Atalanta because of everything he’s done. The ethos of the club, the attacking nature, the astute transfer decisions, the nurturing of the academy players was all welded together under his watch. He’s handing off a neat and tidy package to whoever wants to take it over next and hopefully improve upon his vision. We have all offseason to talk and speculate about that!
For now let’s soak in victory for as long as we can. I want to live vicariously through each and every Atalatini who witnessed history in person, or celebrated close to the front lines. Watching from your loft doesn’t hit the same, but seeing what it means to the fanbase and the city of Bergamo, you know its all okay. No longer do we have to entertain the comments about trophyless Atalanta and Gasperini. Hardware is back in Bergamo, and we’ll do our upmost to make it happen again – let’s just not wait 60 years!
Forza Atalanta to all, the Europa League Champs!
