Josip Ilicic (32 years old) emerged as the hero of Atalanta in his triumphant march in the last Champions League, after crushing Valencia in the round of 16 with five goals, including the Mestalla poker. With barely a month left to play in the quarterfinals against PSG, the 11 of July, after the restart of the competition, the Slovenian was replaced by Mario Pasalic in a match against Milan. Nobody expected that, more than two months later, those were going to be the last minutes playmaker's short dress. At first, Gasperini was hiding in ankle problems.
However, over time, the Italian press revealed that our protagonist had personal problems and was on special leave in his native Slovenia. A depression The club did not want to delve into the situation and they limited themselves to signing Aleksej Miranchuck (“He is the replacement for Ilicic, which at the moment is out of the squad, “Gasperini said.) Two weeks ago, our protagonist returned to Zigonia, Atalanta's sports city, to continue charting the road to recovery, as reported by Gazzetta dello Sport.
Now, little by little, get your smile back. “I saw Josip very well, he has a different face than before,” said Luis Muriel with joy last Tuesday on 'Sky'. The Italian media now echo that improvement in the mood of the virtuous midfielder and point to caution as a measure to attack Josip's problem. Leaded feet.
His teammates are being instrumental in the resurgence of spirit, like the dinner organized by the Papu Gomez in which our protagonist described the Argentine as his accomplice in the field and his friend outside of it. From the gym to the training ground and so on, as the Gazzetta. Surely Gasperini is looking forward to one of his most dangerous weapons (he had 21 goals and 9 assists until his break), but, for the moment, there is no return date, no rush. The main thing is that Ilicic smiles again. The photo uploaded in Instagram walking with his daughters through the streets of Bergamo shows that he is on the right track.