Atalanta Special | The empire of Percassi, king of Atalanta and business

That of Antonio Percassi It is one of those stories that respond so well to those phrases made of “fight for your dreams” or “there is nothing impossible” of the hipster mugs. At 23 he gave up what any child would want, to be a professional footballer, to become an entrepreneur. He didn't start in a garage, but in the tough post-war Italian times. From his arrival to the world until 2020, 67 years have passed and he is now one of the richest men on the planet. He retired, got rich, and bought the club of his loves to be its president.

It has changed his life, but also that of Atalanta. It is now one of the fashion clubs in Europe, of which all identify their style of play and which most neutral fans will support before the PSG in the round of 16 of the Champions League next day 12. An interesting and fun club, one of those needed to refresh the European elite. Antonio Percassi is its creator and this is its history.

Mothers always want their children to play soccer but not to neglect their studies. That they are formed facing the world of work in the event that they are not as good with their feet as they think. It was not the case of Antonio Percassi, who left professional football after playing more than a hundred games to get rich.

Born in Clusone, a small town that did not reach seven thousand inhabitants in Lombardy, in post-war times. Of humble origin, now at 67 he appears in the 1990 position of millionaires in 2020 of Forbes with a fortune of $ 1,100,000,000. A true story, that of the entrepreneur who starts with a small company and ends up forgetting the zeros he has in the bank that has not tired of selling the American mind.

His starting point was the collaboration with his compatriot Luciano Benetto, before his last name spread throughout the world. Now he does not appear on the Percassi website as one of his collaborators, and neither Inditexbut that of Amancio Ortega It was another of his great friendships. Behind Duomo of Milan, in one of the most emblematic streets of the Italian fashion city, promoted shops of Zara, Zara Home, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Pull and Bear, Bershka and Stradivarius. Nike, Kiko Milano or Benneton are also found in the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II. He has also worked with brands such as Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Ferrari, Philipp Plein …

Percassi boasts of having offices around the world. In addition to the Bergamo headquarters, it has facilities in Milan, Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid, Lisbon, St. Moritz, Zurich, Warsaw, New York, Shanghai, Hong Kong, New Dehli, Istanbul, Moscow or Dubai that employ more than nine thousand people. In 2016 it exceeded a thousand stores opened by them. Now he even has a town, Crespi d'Adda, a municipality considered a World Heritage Site in 1995 by the Unesco to install there the seat of his empire.

Divorced, he has six children and five of them are placed in the company. Stefano takes care of cosmetic brands, Matteo those of fashion and restoration, Giuliana helps Matteo with the restoration, Federica of the public relations of cosmetic firms and Luca the construction. The latter, the club's CEO, made the same career as the father. It got to debut in the Chelsea of Zola, but also withdrew at 23. Michael, seven, is still waiting for his moment.

“I love soccer and I was happy. What happened was that I had other priorities. To make money. I wanted to be rich.” He was clear at the age of 23, when he left his beloved football, the one that was taking his family out of financial problems since he debuted at the age of 17. It is also true that his career was far from having the successes of that of Scirea, his companion in the lower Atalanta. When he left, he was not the protagonist in either the Atalanta or the Cesena, where they sent their last year.

In 1990 he already had a small stage as president, when the club was owned by the family Bortolotti. Cesare managed the team after his father Achille, who was president during the Percassi player stage. Sadly, he died in a car accident and Antonio was left with the responsibility of taking the reins of the club until 1994.

In 2010 he joined the club in a more serious way and since then has been its president. The first year in Series B, they promoted to First and did not disappoint as an eccentric millionaire. At the party organized by the fans to start the season each summer, he appeared riding a fighter MiG-21, a Soviet combat aircraft. The motto of the party was “Let's bomb the A seriesHe was accompanied by something akin to a pair of brilliant Imperial Army soldiers. Another year he arrived on a giant balloon and in 2013 he used an American World War II tank that entered above two cars painted in the colors of the Rome and the Brescia. “It was just a joke, we didn't want to get anyone in trouble.” After the tank, a combine appeared to destroy a stack of newspapers.

Institutionally, it has provided stability to a hobby that became accustomed to being an elevator club in the 2000s and sportily hit the spot with Gian Piero Gasperini. The Italian coach arrived in 2016 and lost four of his first five league games. However, his team started working and finished that season fourth and, thus, qualify for Europe twenty-six years later. In 2019 it was not the Europa League, but the Champions League, and the award for coach of the year (Panchina d'Oro) chosen by his own bench partners.

No one can doubt a team that eliminated Valencia 8-4 on aggregate in the last 16 of the Champions League. In addition, their matches are hilarious because of the round trip in which they turn their matches from start to finish. With 98 goals, they are the top scorer in the top five leagues only behind Manchester City (102) and Bayern Munich (100). On the 12th PSG awaits them, really something unthinkable when Percassi took the club in Serie B ten years ago.

Percassi has taken advantage of globalization like no one else, but has never neglected his city. The headquarters of his empire is in Bergamo, he did not want to play outside Atalanta until he had no other option and, when he could, he did not forget his roots and took over the club. Like all the clubs that are close to an ocean liner, in Atalanta they hated that their best players went to the big teams. “In my time they controlled the towns in their areas and the best went to the Juve or the Milan clubs “, Antonio recalled years ago, regretting, among others, the march to Turin from the aforementioned Scirea.

“The club cannot break its bond with the fans and, if it wants to compete, it needs to have players of the house”. For this reason, and although the power of attraction of the club is what it is, the idea is to support the youth squads as much as possible and stop being a selling club. Obviously, that Milan, Rome, Naples and Turin to look at the Bergamo footballers is an indication that they are doing very well in the club's technical secretariat, but in the long term it is difficult to see a winning team if they take your best players every summer.

Percassi insists on the idea of ​​the quarry and gives great value to the sports city, the Bortolotti Center that has not stopped growing. The facilities are spectacular, with 120,000 square meters of playing fields and facilities. A modern space in which the direction of the club does not stop investing. And Dea's quarry already pays for itself. Last season they won the affiliate league, a title they threatened to repeat (were leading) this year before the league was suspended due to the coronavirus.

But the jewel in the crown of the facilities is, how could it be otherwise, the stadium. It has received numerous names and right now it takes the last name of the electrical company Gewiss. In 2015 a major modernization of the stadium is carried out, as well as in 2019 and 2020. But beyond the facilities that, little by little, will be improving, what is striking is that in 2017 the club bought the stadium. For just over 8 million euros, Percassi took the municipal stadium, being one of the few Italian teams with a stadium owned. A more than evident declaration of intent that Atalanta wants to be great.