Gian Piero Gasperini’s nine-year tenure at Atalanta is over. As he steps down, we look back at his transformative time in Bergamo and break down the defining stats behind his success.
Atalanta’s golden era under Gian Piero Gasperini has officially come to an end. After nine transformative years in Bergamo, the 67-year-old tactician – who led the club to their first-ever European trophy with Europa League success in 2024 – has stepped down from his role as head coach.
The news had been on the cards since February, when Gasperini announced he would not be renewing his contract, set to expire at the end of the 2024-25 campaign. Yet the confirmation was still a bitter blow, particularly for Atalanta fans who made public demonstrations of support in the days leading up to the announcement, including unfurling a banner in the city that simply read: “Gasperini must stay.”
Their reaction was understandable. Under Gasperini, Atalanta were not only transformed into European regulars – with five UEFA Champions League qualifications and a historic piece of silverware in the Europa League to show for it – but also shaped into one of the continent’s most admired clubs, both on and off the pitch.
As the Italian coach steps down, we analyse his time at Atalanta and dive into the defining stats behind his time there.
A Club Reborn
When Gasperini was appointed in June 2016, Atalanta had just finished 13th in Serie A and hadn’t secured a top-half finish in their previous eight campaigns. The club were best known for their excellent youth academy, but had no real aspirations to challenge the hegemony in Italy’s top flight.
What followed was one of the most remarkable transformations in modern European football. With support from the club’s owners, the Percassi family, and a long-term vision rooted in intelligent recruitment, investment into infrastructure, and of course guided by the tactics of Gasperini, a new era was born in Bergamo.
After a very difficult start to the 2016-17 season that saw Atalanta lose four of their first five league games under Gasperini, something clicked. They went on to win eight of their next nine and from there, they never looked back.
From 2016-17 to 2024-25, Atalanta qualified for Europe in eight of their nine seasons, securing Champions League football five times and never finishing below eighth.
At their most potent in 2019-20, Atalanta scored a staggering 98 league goals – a club record – and amassed 78 points, a tally they would match in 2020-21.
La Dea’s games were always thrilling to watch under Gasperini: league matches involving Atalanta averaged 3.1 goals per game during his time at the club, more than any other team to compete in the division for two or more seasons. That swashbuckling brand of football brought Gasperini widespread acclaim.
The European Breakthrough
Atalanta had enjoyed just four continental campaigns in their entire history before Gasperini’s arrival – two in the Cup Winners’ Cup and two in the UEFA Cup. With him at the helm, European qualification was no longer a rare occurrence, it became an expectation.
From a Champions League quarter-final in their debut campaign (2019-20) to a Europa League triumph in 2023-24, Atalanta repeatedly punched above their weight. The 3-0 dismantling of a Bayer Leverkusen side that had not been beaten in any competition in their previous 51 games prior to the 2024 Europa League final in Dublin was the crowning moment.
That night, Gasperini became the oldest manager to win a major European final on debut (66 years and 117 days) as Atalanta became the first Italian club to win the UEFA Cup/Europa League since Parma in 1993.
Ademola Lookman – who bagged all three goals on the night – became just the second player to score a hat-trick in a major European final for an Italian side after Pierino Prati for Milan in 1969, and only the second ever in a UEFA Cup/Europa League final full stop.
Gasperini departs as the most successful coach in Atalanta history. His 439 matches in charge and 228 wins are both club records across all competitions (since 1929-30). Only Giovanni Trapattoni (402 games with Juventus) has managed more matches with a single club in Serie A history than Gasperini’s 342.
Gasperini’s legacy is visible not just in trophies or numbers, but in the players who grew under his time at the club. Marten de Roon, who become club captain, made 270 Serie A appearances under him – more than any other player under a single manager since the three-points-for-a-win era began in 1994-95. Teammates Mario Pašalić (230) and Rafael Tolói (229) also rank among the top five in that list.
While we’re highlighting individual players, perhaps no singular performance captured the spirit of Gasperini’s Atalanta better than Josip Ilicic’s four-goal haul against Valencia in the 2020 Champions League round of 16. No other player has ever scored four goals in a single knockout match for an Italian club in the competition, and Ilicic joins an illustrious list of those to score four or more in a Champions League knockout game: Lionel Messi (twice), Mario Gomez, Robert Lewandowski and Erling Haaland.
During Gasperini’s time at the club, only Duván Zapata (82) and Luis Muriel (68) scored more goals in all competitions than Ilicic’s 60. With a further 40 assists, only Zapata (120) and Papu Gómez (104) registered more than the Slovenian’s 100 goal involvements.
After nine years, 439 games, and a brand of football that won admirers across Europe, Gasperini and Atalanta are now going their separate ways. He may not be going far though, with reports linking him to the Roma vacancy.
As the Bergamo faithful reflect on this chapter in their club’s history, one truth is without a doubt: Gian Piero Gasperini didn’t just manage Atalanta. He redefined what the club thought it could be.
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