Even as some of the biggest football clubs pursue the hottest young managers — Vincent Kompany, Enzo Maresca, Kieran McKenna — ready to risk millions on their vision and philosophy of play, an old grandmaster continues to show how it’s done with limited resources. At 66, Gian Piero Gasperini is having perhaps the finest of his 21 seasons as coach, his eighth at Atalanta which continues to defy football gravity as a low-budget provincial club in the hotbed of northern Italy. In the Europa League final last week, Atalanta stopped Bayer Leverkusen’s shot at European football immortality and lifted its first top-level trophy for 61 years.
At long last: Gasperini helped Atalanta end a six-decade wait for a top-level trophy after a memorable campaign in the Europa League. | Photo credit: Getty Images Silverware in a golden era And as a sprightly Gasperini — his black rain jacket zipped high against the Dublin evening chill — danced with his players and staff, the enormity of the achievement dawned not just on the thousands clad in blue and black that had made the trip from northern Italy but also on neutral fans and connoisseurs of attacking football. The side from Bergamo, in the foothills of the Italian Alps, has long lived in the shadow of nearby giants AC and Inter Milan.
But it has enjoyed a golden era under Gasperini, reaching the Champions League on four occasions, and now has silverware to show for it. It was a rare victory for the underdog in a sport usually do.
