Atalanta, Gasperini at the presentation of Garlando’s book

From our correspondent Marco Guidi

April 21
– BERGAMO

“My debut was in Palermo, alongside Montesano”. Gian Piero Gasperini remembers his first card very well. The one with the Palermo shirt. “But I wasn’t in Serie A yet, the first single was only at Pescara”. The Atalanta coach, together with deputy Tullio Gritti, is the special guest in Bergamo for the presentation of “The album of dreams”, the novel by the journalist of the Gazzetta Luigi Garlando on the incredible story of the Panini family. “An exceptional book – explains Gasperini – because it is a cross-section of Italy in the last century”.

Emotion

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Gasperini and Gritti grew up with the myth of the “figu”. “For my generation the stickers were an absolute novelty. Seeing our idols photographed, being able to collect them, an indescribable emotion, also because it was not like now, the games on TV were rarely seen and the champions did not see them in the face often” . Favorite of the Gasp? “Tante: Rivera, Mazzola … I used to play on the table at home, doing the formations and the game with a paper ball. It helped me to learn (laughs). Then, by exchanging the cards at school, the first sports directors were born”. An unforgettable moment, once they became professional footballers, was the arrival of the Panini photographer at the training ground. “Always early in the morning, always with the sun in your face – recalls Gritti -. In Brescia I looked like a corpse in the photo: white shirt, dark circles, dull skin …”. Today times have changed and the players perhaps even more. “Potentially they are the same as us – reflects Gasperini -. But the world has changed … life was more difficult in our times, today the players are facilitated. Gritti and I went alone to negotiate the contract year by year, in front of the president and managers. We were preparing the day before, it was a battle. But these things make you grow. We faced things firsthand and this gave you a personality that today you struggle to find in young people “.

Nerazzurri

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Certainly Atalanta has also changed. “When I arrived here I felt like I was in a small Bilbao, but it was hard to invest in young players. The image was of a team fighting to save itself with a knife between its teeth and the experience of mature players. I fought for bring my vision, even risking my place in that famous Atalanta-Napoli. I had all these well-structured guys, like Caldara, Gagliardini, Conti and so on, and in the underpass before the game, when I looked at them, I said to myself: “Today we tear our opponents to pieces “. In fact, we often took the lead immediately.” That Atalanta, however, is different from that of today. “Europe has made us grow, even if this year we have been a little less good – continues Gasp -. Perhaps we are no longer so” Bergamo “, but more international. That’s right, a club cannot stand still. otherwise the competition eats it “. It also happens to coaches. Today Juric, Tudor and others “imitate” Gasperini, trying to beat him. “For me it is an honor, but also a stimulus to always invent something new: if you don’t move, you are lost”. The only taboo word: scudetto. “When I heard a fan say this summer that he envied Verona because he had won a Scudetto, I dropped my p…. I understood that it was going to be difficult.”