Gian Piero Gasperini: the trend-bucking, stereotype-busting tactical mastermind Premium

Gian Piero Gasperini leads Atalanta to Europa League glory with innovative tactics, defying football's financial norms.

Even as some of the biggest football clubs pursue the hottest young managers — Vincent Kompany, Enzo Maresca, Kieran McKenna — ready to risk millions on their vision and philosophy of play, an old grandmaster continues to show how it’s done with limited resources.

At 66, Gian Piero Gasperini is having perhaps the finest of his 21 seasons as coach, his eighth at Atalanta which continues to defy football gravity as a low-budget provincial club in the hotbed of northern Italy. In the Europa League final last week, Atalanta stopped Bayer Leverkusen’s shot at European football immortality and lifted its first top-level trophy for 61 years.

And as a sprightly Gasperini — his black rain jacket zipped high against the Dublin evening chill — danced with his players and staff, the enormity of the achievement dawned not just on the thousands clad in blue and black that had made the trip from northern Italy but also on neutral fans and connoisseurs of attacking football.

The side from Bergamo, in the foothills of the Italian Alps, has long lived in the shadow of nearby giants AC and Inter Milan. But it has enjoyed a golden era under Gasperini, reaching the Champions League on four occasions, and now has silverware to show for it. It was a rare victory for the underdog in a sport usually dominated by the clubs with the deepest pockets.

“To win it with Atalanta is perhaps one of the football fairytales that rarely gives scope for meritocracy,” said Gasperini. “There’s still room for ideas, it doesn’t always come down to cold hard numbers or super leagues but shows teams without huge budgets can achieve big things.

“We needed to be attacking. You can’t just defend in matches like this. Everyone was extraordinary. The way we did it was the most important thing, we deserved it without a shadow of a doubt. We’re so happy because to win the Europa League is a huge achievement for us.”

The 3-0 win over Leverkusen, which was unbeaten in 51 games in all competitions until then, featured Gasperini’s football ideas at their finest. In contrast to the image of the cliched defence-minded Italian manager, the 66-year-old coaches a fluid-passing attacking style.