For many years, but many, many, what happened today 25 years ago was the only sweet memory that Atleti fans could put into their mouths. The doublet. LaLiga's achievement of a team that already had the Cup in their hands. May 25, 1996, Vicente Calderón Stadium, it was very hot. Milinko Pantic, one of the heroes of that team, remembers his feeling when jumping on the grass. “My God, how many there were, it seemed that Jesús Gil had gone to the street and invited anyone with whom he had crossed paths to enter. There are not sixty thousand, there are more, twice: three per site“, Vicente Calderón wielded in Hasta Siempre, recalling that day. Last day of the League, as in ten of the eleven that the rojiblanco club has won in its history, the last time three days ago, Albacete ahead and the need to win to be champion Valencia lurked.
Atlético's players celebrate their goal against Salamanca in the double, on the penultimate round of the League.
In the 15th minute, it is precisely Pantic's boot that finds the head of one of the best spikers of the team, that footballer with the '14' on his back who years later would wear a black suit to change the history of the club, but that it would be many years later, now that man heads that Pantic ball to send it to the back of the net. Ole, ole, ole, Cholo Simeone, then the Calderón explodes, chanting his surname. 1-0, Atlético are one goal closer to their goal. Soon there would already be two, Kiko would score, Atlético had that word tightly tied, double, history.
An event turned into a documentary
When the referee whistled, the madness, the look at the classification, the Atleti up there, a place from which no match was going to move him. 87 points, four more than Valencia, 26 games won, nine draws, seven defeats, that said. That and a footballer to occupy the bench one day tomorrow: that Cholo Simeone whose career as a coach was seen. Tonight Movistar + will remember it with a documentary. Atleti has added one point less to achieve this League 2020-21, 86, with the same number of victories (26), eight draws and four defeats. Better way to celebrate the anniversary, impossible. The double is no longer the only sweet that the fans can put in their mouths, it has been nine years since.