In the absence of tradition, an inflated budget or huge stars, one has to wonder what the secret of Atlanta's success is • The answer probably lies in the number of players signed to it - 103

• The Atlanta players are celebrating. The fruitful attack in Italy

  Photo:

  IP

Atletico for the eighth Champions League final (tonight against Valencia) with her first ever participation in the prestigious European factory.
Some may say that the answer lies in the comfortable home she received - one of seven points in her last three games and a negative score difference in the last 16 - but there is clearly much more to it than that.

The Bergamo team has an excellent coach - Gian Piero Gasparini, who has guided her since 2016, a talented and connected team of players, most notably an offensive style of play that has made her the most prolific team in Italy with 63 goals in 24 cycles.

Probably the last figure best explains how Atalanta got here, but there is another number worth dwelling on and can explain why it is likely to remain for many more years. 103. That's the number of players that belong to Atlanta today. This is the highest number in the world, and the following is the division: 22 players in the adult group, 27 in the group up to the age of 19 and 54 other players on loan.

Reports on 4,400 players
Ten of the borrowers play ten games in the series, and the rest are scattered throughout the continent. As for their ages: 34 are aged 23-20 and 17 are under 20. In other words, Atlanta has an almost endless pool of players from which it can strengthen the first team or sell to other teams, thereby increasing its coffers.

"We are like mushroom pickers - getting up early to find the goodies," explained Scouting head Mauricio Costenzo, who considers finding talent the best way to deal with the big teams in Italy and Europe.

Gasparini. He too has some success // Photo: IP

Atalanta has no great resources, and like all series teams, except Juventus, it also has no reserve group. Therefore, it collects and lends in quantities - as long as it is of course allowed. Only recently did UEFA President Alexander Chaprin say "the restrictions of the questions need to be examined" and without mentioning the name of Atalanta he added: "For example, there is a team in Italy with 103 players."

This is an extreme number for all opinions, and to reach it the group has a network of scouts scattered from the Lombardy region in Italy to Ecuador and Gambia. According to Costenzo, last year the team examined reports and videos of 4,400 different players, from which they selected the best according to the criteria of athleticism, decision making, technique and more.

Dejan Kolosowski as a model
A look at the current roster may not highlight the quality of squatting. Atalanta's top players came after a few years in middle-class teams - Papo Gomes played in Catania, Joseph Ilyichic was in Fiorentina and Duban Spate moved in Odinese and Naples - while many others were brought in from smaller leagues and more remote markets.

The quality of Atalanta's tweezers can be seen through the Lent and the Young. The team up to the age of 19, who won last year's championship and leads the table in the current season represents the club's professional future, while borrowers scattered throughout Europe the economic future.

Dejan Kolosowski, for example, discovered Atalanta in Poland when he was 17, bought small money, lent it to Parma, and in January sold it to Juventus for about 40 million euros. That's how business is done today. "Kolosevsky is the model, but that does not mean that players cannot develop for us," Costenzo clarified this week as he set goals for the future. "We want to continue to amaze the world," he added, "and to prove that hard work brings good results."

With hard facts to argue with, Vitalante is certainly even more amazing - achieving amazing results. According to Costenzo's way of acting and future plans, Gasparini and club president Antonio Perkasi, it is inevitable that what we are seeing now is just the beginning.