In Palosco, a small town on the outskirts of Bergamo, a birth notice flashed up on one of the signs. It was the day after Atalanta’s 3-0 win against Marseille in the Europa League semi-finals. “The town hall welcomes the little Lookman,” it announced. At a nearby hospital, a newborn child was in the arms of a couple of Atalanta fans. Euphoric at becoming parents just as their team reached a first-ever European final, the baby was named after one of the goalscorers.
Big Lookman had caused a lot of kicking and screaming that night with his opener against Marseille. Little did he know that his mazy dribble to the edge of the box and slotted far-corner finish had induced a supporter into labour. What a time to be alive. For 14 years, Atalanta’s snowy-haired chairman and former player, Antonio Percassi, has sent every newborn in the area an Atalanta babygrow. Supporting this club is a birthright but it isn’t an expectation. Bergamo lies in the shadow of Milan, where football giants AC Milan and Inter, Champions League winners on 10 occasions, have traditionally loomed so large. The temptation for fans growing up nearby has been to support one of them.
Only in Bergamo, it’s actually out of the question.
Lookman after his Europa League final hat-trick (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
Atalanta have always got to the little Lookmans early. From the cradle to the Aviva Stadium. This generation of fans has never had it so good. Older ones remember the club’s last trophy in 1963 when a hat-trick from Angelo Domenghini saw off Torino in the Coppa Italia final. For decades afterwards, success was measured by gaining promotion and staying up as Atalanta bounced between the top flight and the second division. The furthest they’d ever been in Europe until recently was the Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final as a Serie B side in 1988.
Glenn Stromberg was a legend of that team. “Let the suffering begin,” he posted on X before Wednesday’s Europa League final. But Atalanta’s coach Gian Piero Gasperini seemed entirely casual about it. Denim in Dublin, he coached the game in jeans. Contrary to the nerves and tension among the eight thousand Atalanta fans in the ground, his team appeared even more relaxed and played as if in slippers. They triumphed 3-0 against Bayer Leverkusen, as they did at Anfield, and the night little Lookman came into the world against Marseille. “Today we put in a wonderful and memorable performance,” Gasperini said.
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise and yet still it did. Atalanta had lost the Coppa Italia final a week ago to a derided Juventus side. To make matters worse they lost Marten de Roon to injury too. The Dutchman has been at the club throughout Gasperini’s eight-year run and is one of the smiling totems of this team. He was moved to tears the other day when the ultras left a banner outside the training ground. In blue and black spray paint it read: “Commitment, sacrifice and a shirt soaked in sweat. De Roon, you have already lifted a trophy.”
Gasperini didn’t feel like he needed an actual one to achieve fulfilment either. When asked if he did, he replied: “I don’t understand what you’re getting at. I feel as good a coach now as I did this afternoon.” Ending Bayer Leverkusen’s 51-game unbeaten run, a noteworthy feat in itself, changed nothing for him. His approach was pure YOLO. Gasperini went for it. After losing every final of his career, he did not renounce his principles. He doubled down, starting Gianluca Scamacca, Charles de Ketelaere and Lookman. As a collective display, it felt like a lite version of Milan’s 4-0 win against Barcelona in 1994. On an individual level, Lookman not only became this generation’s Domenghini — he emulated Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Pierino Prati and Jupp Heynckes in scoring a hat-trick in a European final.
The 26-year-old Nigeria international had already come so close this season. He went all the way to the Africa Cup of Nations final at the turn of the year then the Coppa Italia final only to experience defeat in both. But much like Atalanta as a club, he was due some silverware. “They always say third time lucky. That’s what they say,” Lookman said. “I have no words.”
Gasperini celebrates with Atalanta president Antonio Percassi (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
As the gold and silver ticker tape shimmered on the pitch, Percassi and his son Luca, the chief executive, walked to the Atalanta end, stared at it and saw themselves reflected back: Bergamaschi in ecstasy. They have made this club into a sustainable, less star-studded version of what Parma represented in the 1990s and it is fitting that they became the first Italian team since that famous side to lift this trophy 25 years ago. The Percassis deserve immense credit. They stood by Gasperini when he lost his first five games in charge and have been rewarded with four cup finals and four Champions League qualifications. The success of their academy and player trading model has allowed the club to build and go again on the pitch and off it, attracting a new majority owner in Steve Pagliuca, whose Boston Celtics may yet win the Larry O’Brien Trophy. The Gewiss Stadium has been entirely renovated, and the works are almost complete.
It is, in many respects, the house that Gasp built. He has already been given the keys to Bergamo. What else is there left for him to achieve here? “If one were to find a moment to go out, it’s this, as a winner,” he told RAI. Napoli want him now as they have done in the past. Gasperini and Aurelio De Laurentiis famously went for dinner in 2011 where a napkin was signed as a memorandum of understanding. “Do you have a copy?” Gasperini asked the Napoli owner. He didn’t and Gasperini joined Inter instead, a short-lived experience that profoundly marked him. Atalanta, in their blue and black shirts which shared Inter’s sponsor for the Europa League final, have been his revenge. “Winning our way without debts,” he said, rather pointedly on the same day Inter’s owners defaulted on a €395million loan and lost the club, “is a great way to triumph,” Gasperini said.
As Atalanta flew back to Bergamo in the early hours of the morning, they had a new baby with them. Weighing in at 7.5kg, it wasn’t another little Lookman. It was the Europa League trophy. Their Bergamasca bambina.
(Top photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
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