Antonio Percassi is celebrating 10 years of his second spell as Atalanta President, taking the club to the Champions League – and raking in the cash.
Percassi returned as patron in June 2010, when Atalanta were till in Serie B. Promotion was achieved in their first season reunited, and they haven’t looked back since.
Indeed, the only way has been up, with the Dea going on to become one of Italy’s most enterprising teams and Champions League quarter-finalists.
Antonio Percassi is celebrating 10 years of his second spell as Atalanta President, taking the club to the Champions League – and raking in the cash.
Percassi returned as patron in June 2010, when Atalanta were till in Serie B. Promotion was achieved in their first season reunited, and they haven’t looked back since.
Indeed, the only way has been up, with the Dea going on to become one of Italy’s most enterprising teams and Champions League quarter-finalists.
Their business model has been to buy low and sell high, yet they’ve gone from strength to strength, despite losing several of their best players every summer.
It’s a model that has raised more than €200m in profits from player sales, which the club has reinvested in more hidden gems and outstanding youth talent.
En route to a fourth-place Serie A finish, Atalanta made a quick €22m by selling youth product Roberto Gagliardini to Inter in January 2017.
That summer, they cashed in on Andrea Conti and Franck Kessie, receiving more than €50m from Milan for the duo.
More remarkably, Inter paid them €31.1m for Alessandro Bastoni, who played just nine times for the Orobici at the time of his transfer.
Roma splashed out €36m to sign Bryan Cristante and Gianluca Mancini between 2018 and 2019, but Juventus trump all of their rivals.
First, they committed to paying as much as €25m for Mattia Caldara, who has since returned to Atalanta without making a competitive appearance for the Old Lady, having been moved on to Milan in part-exchange for Leonardo Bonucci.
Then, in January of this year, Juve struck a deal worth €34m – potentially rising to €44m – for Dejan Kulusevski.
Kulusevski played just three times for the Bergamo side and cost them just €165,000 when he arrived from Swedish outfit Brommapojkarna in 2016.
Atalanta’s 10 biggest profits from sales since 2010:
10. Andrea Petagna, €11m (signed from Milan for €1m in 2016, sold to SPAL last summer for €12m)
9. Musa Barrow, €12m (signed from Hawks FC for €200,000 in 2016, sold to Bologna in January for €13m)
8. Gianluca Mancini, €14.7m (signed from Perugia for €300,000, sold to Roma last summer for €15m)
7. Bryan Cristante, €16m (signed from Benfica for €5m in 2017, sold to Roma a year later for €21m)
6. Mattia Caldara, €19m (youth product, sold to Juventus in 2017 for €19m)
5. Roberto Gagliardini, €22m (youth product, sold to Inter in 2017 for €22m)
4. Andrea Conti, €24m (youth product, sold to Milan in 2017 for €24m)
3. Franck Kessie, €26.5m (signed from Stella Adjame in 2015 for €1.5m, sold to Milan in 2017 for €28m)
2. Alessandro Bastoni, €31.1m (youth product, sold to Inter in 2017 for €31.1m)
1. Dejan Kulusevski, €34.8m (signed from Brommapojkarna in 2016 for €165,000, sold to Juventus in 2020 for €34m, rising to €44m)