Soccer. Every weekend, the Milanese bourgeoisie bottles the valleys of the province of Bergamo to smell the mountain air. Fair return of things: this season, midweek, the Bergamo plebs descend to the San Siro stadium, temple of Milanese football, to the chagrin of those who consider themselves owners of the premises, the ultras of Inter Milan and Milan AC.
The "Scala del calcio" ("Football scala") resumes, Wednesday, February 19, with the final stages of the Champions League, for the first time in six years, and the two owner clubs have nothing to do with it. Atalanta Bergamo, whose stadium is not approved by UEFA, is the guest surprise of this final phase. He faces FC Valencia with chances of qualification and, at least, the opportunity to exhibit one of the most exciting games in Europe.
Revenue tripled
The feat is not small. Considering the history of the club, the size of the city and its stadium, the one closest to Atalanta in France is called FC Metz. It could be a nice tale about modern football: Inter and AC Milan dived in sport when their historic owners, the Lombard businessmen Massimo Moratti and Silvio Berlusconi, resold clubs to Asian investors.
Bergamo remained clinging to its model of local owners, without getting intoxicated by the results. Do not see moral: the club has adopted well crooked "Football business" and, thanks to his European qualifications and his player assignments, has multiplied his income by three since 2015. Atalanta is no longer FC Metz.
"Our model is simple: a very good training center, players resold at good prices, which makes it possible to make a leap in quality", Antonio Percassi, president of Atalanta
The two men behind this metamorphosis are in their sixties, white hair and flawless lines. On the bench, Gian Piero Gasperini, a man of principles of play and life: the reputation of a builder, accepting without hesitation that his presidents unravel, by selling his players, the balance patiently tied up.
Behind the president's office, Antonio Percassi, a local entrepreneur but national in scope, made a fortune in real estate, cosmetics and catering. The sum of the assets of his family holding company exceeds one billion euros. Before taking control of the club, between 1990 and 1994 then again in 2010, he wore the colors black and blue in the 1970s.
