Italian football saw seismic change as a young Atalanta side established itself as the 2nd best in Serie A in 1998 (2027). Their massive overperformance saw the vultures yet again circling their best players, clearly cognizant of the club’s dreadful finances, but things were about to get very exciting in Bergamo.
The summer saw the World Cup in France and, just like in real life, the hosts made it to the Final to take on Brazil. In real life, the Ronaldo saga saw Brazil crumble to a 3-0 defeat. But in this universe, Ronaldo scored after 2 minutes, Thuram equalised before Rivaldo, Jorginho and Jardel put Brazil 4-1 up, and Djorkaeff and Henry gave France some hope. But Brazil lifted their 5th World Cup in a 4-3 thriller. Italy made it to the semis but lost 1-0 to France, who also beat England 2-1 in the quarter-finals.
Coming into the summer, the £21m prize money for finishing 2nd only left Atalanta with £250k in the bank, as monthly tax fees continued to plunge the club into a negative balance. One obvious solution was to sell players for “big” money, and Mark Van Bommel went to Bayern for £15m and several backups left for an additional £11m. In January, Didier Drogba decided he wasn’t happy with no playing time as a hot prospect and went to Santander for £9m.
As teased in Part 5, this summer’s big-name signing was supposed to be former loanee Raúl, who signed for just £4.5m from Real Madrid. However, on deadline day, Lombardi noticed that superstar Ronaldo, who was strangely still at PSV, was finally interested in a move. And, despite having to include a £9m minimum release fee, he got the deal done.
That ludicrous attacking duo was joined by centre back Ricardo Carvalho for £5m from Porto and exciting midfielder Ezequiel Carboni, who played for RB Salzburg and Catania and is the father of FM24 wonderkid Valentín, for £3.5m from Lanús. However, Carvalho broke his leg on international duty in July and will miss up to 8 months! Lombardi broke from his youth policy to bring in legendary striker Hristo Stoichkov on loan from Barcelona and loaned in Raúl’s mate Guti from Madrid.
Lombardi had an international break to work out how to get Ronaldo and Raúl into a team alongside the outstanding Vincenzo Montella, Álvaro Recoba and Domenico Morfeo. Before Ronaldo’s arrival, he’d created a very attacking 3-4-1-2. But he took that up a level and ditched the 3 at the back to go with a silly 4-3-3 – with Morfeo and Recoba having to learn deeper positions that suit their attributes. However, Lombardi did tinker with dropping Raúl into the hole and kept last season’s successful 3-4-3 approach in the back pocket, just in case it all went horribly wrong.
There were more big transfers across Europe, including Henry getting his 3rd transfer in 5 years and Jamie Redknapp becoming the most expensive player in the save. Notable transfers in 1998 include:
- Jamie Redknapp: Liverpool to Juventus, £37m
- Thierry Henry: Man United to Real Madrid, £20m
- Fabio Cannavaro: Man United to Real Madrid £16.5m
- Julen Guerrero: Arsenal to Liverpool £15.5m
- Serhiy Rebrov: Nantes to Villa, £12m
- Sami Hyypia: Arsenal to Barcelona, £12m
- Rigobert Song: Kaiserslautern to Lazio, £11.75m
- Iker Casillas: Real Madrid to Man United, £8.75m
- Pavel Nedved: Leeds to Real Madrid, £8.25m
- Paolo Montero (ex-Atalanta): Juventus to PSG, £8m
- Roberto Di Matteo: Lazio to Inter, £8m
- Gaizka Mendieta: Valencia to Juventus, £7.75m
- Gary Kelly: Leeds to Juventus, £7.75m
- Paul Warhurst: Real Sociedad to Deportivo, £7.25m
- Lúcio: Benfica to Man United, £6.75m
- Louis Saha: Liverpool to Arsenal, £6.25m
- Jardel: Vasco to Liverpool, £5.75m
- Jonathan Woodgate: Leeds to Tottenham, £5.75m
- Jaap Stam: Kaiserslautern to Arsenal, £4.8m
- Simao Sabrosa: Sporting to Leeds, £4.7m
- Pippo Inzaghi: Lazio to Benfica, £4.5m
- Fabrizio Ravanelli: Ajax to Arsenal, £4.1m
- David Trezeguet: Platense to Roma, £3.3m
- John Carew: Valarenga to PSG, £3.1m
- Emile Mpenza: Kortrijk to Bayern, £2.8m
- Chris Sutton: Man United to Milan, £2.5m
- Faustino Asprilla: Parma to Lyon, £2.3m
UEFA Cup Farce
The Atalanta board wanted Lombardi to win the UEFA Cup. However, they got a tough 1st round draw against Valencia and lost 2-1 away. But the home leg was farcical with 13 first-team players on international duty. And a team of reserves did well to draw 1-1 but go out at the first time of asking.
Ronaldo Comes To Serie A
Lombardi was really excited by his improved squad, but the bookies still only fancied them to finish 7th with title odds of 25/1. Juve remain massive 11/10 favourites followed by Roma (15/2), Lazio (8/1), Inter (9/1) and Milan (11/1).
Atalanta got off to a slightly edgy start as Morfeo and Montella earned a 2-1 win over Parma. They were much better at Padova as Carboni and Raúl scored on debut in a 4-0 victory. Two trickier away days followed in a crazy 4-4 at Inter, in which Stoichkov’s late penalty earned a point after Salas bagged a hat trick for the hosts, then a 2-1 defeat at Roma.
But the big tests came when Lombardi switched to 3 up top. Its first outing came on Ronaldo’s debut at Cagliari and started badly. But Atalanta quickly laid siege as Recoba and Ronaldo laid on identical Morfeo goals from the edge of the box, Carboni quickly followed suit, and right back Cristian Zenoni`crossed for Recoba to make it 5 before half time. They didn’t let up and Ronaldo soon got in on the act by finishing from Pierre Giorgio Regonesi’s wonderful deep cross and Stoichkov converted a penalty. This opening game may set the scene for a wild tactic, which still delivered 62% of possession.
There were plenty of teething problems as they bedded in the new approach, especially as Ronaldo went on international duty for 2 months, with a 4-3 win over Sampdoria followed by a 3-3 at Fiorentina and Recorba scoring twice in a 4-1 victory at home to Bari. But Ronaldo returned to score, lay on 2 and win a penalty as Morfeo bagged a brace in a superb 4-2 win over Juventus, in which they had 63% possession.
Recoba had continued his superb form of last season into this, scoring a hat trick then a brace in wins over Genoa and Torino. The good start stuttered with a 1-0 loss at Lazio before Recoba scored 2 more in a 5-1 hammering of early leaders Milan and another hat trick in a 7-2 win at Verona, in which they had 23 shots, 4.63 xG and 63% possession. Teams in Serie A couldn’t handle this formation, as evidenced by a 5-0 win at Ancona, in which they had 27 shots, 5.53 xG (including 3 penalties) and 74% possession.
Flying Into A Title Race
That win took Atalanta top of Serie A for the first time heading into 1999 (2028), with a 2-point lead over Milan and Inter and a 4-point gap to Juve. They began the year at home to Inter, who obviously scored their first shot from a corner then got ripped apart by their real-life players as Recoba equalised, Ronaldo created a 2nd for Carboni and Recoba bagged a 2nd before Montella made it 4 inside 26 minutes! Inter scored another corner fluke but Recoba wrapped up yet another hat trick late on.
Atalanta kept the good form going, including Montella scoring twice in a 5-0 win over Cagliari to become the club’s all-time record league scorer with 104 goals. A slightly more defensive approach saw them hold on for a 1-1 at Juventus and late Recoba and Raúl strikes sealed a 4-1 win over Roma. That took Atalanta into their first-ever title race, leading Juve by 4 points, Lazio by 5 and Inter by 9.
Game 1 – Lazio (3rd, home): The run-in began with a tough home test and went behind to Desailly’s header. But they dominated the game and missed loads of chances before Recoba eventually earned a point. Juventus won 5-1 at Genoa, which means they’ve won their last 14 Serie A games, bar the 1-1 with Atalanta, and Inter beat Verona 4-0.
Game 2 – Milan (5th, away): Another tough game followed with a trip to Milan. But Atalanta’s star men stepped up as Recoba calmly tucked home a penalty earned by Ronaldo, who tapped home a 2nd before Morfeo’s low drive sealed a 3-0 victory late on. And an unusually solid defensive effort limited Milan to 1 shot and 0 on target. Juve won again, 4-0 at Torino, Inter won 3-2 at Cesena and Lazio beat Cagliari 3-1.
Game 3 – Verona (13th, home): Atalanta dominated Verona from the first kick, having 10 shots inside half an hour. But they eventually got in front as Montella turned 25 yards out and curled an unstoppable shot into the top corner. And Ronaldo made sure of the result with a powerful run before smashing past the keeper. Again, they prevented Verona having a shot on target and Recoba’s penalty sealed another 3-0 win – but it could have been 10. A couple of hours later, Juve hosted Lazio and won yet again to keep Atalanta 2 points clear and ensure the title was now a two-horse race.
Juventus were in the Coppa Italia and Champions League Finals, so they had to play their final 2 games of the season before Atalanta played their penultimate game. And they beat Verona 3-1, to make it 10 consecutive league wins and go top, then lost 2-0 at Milan to goals by Scholes and Sutton, which was the first time all season they’d failed to score in a match.
Game 4 – Cesena (12th, away): Milan’s win meant Atalanta needed 1 point to win Serie A for the first time, as they had a better head-to-head record against Juve. They should have been in front after 22 seconds at Cesena as Morfeo’s shot was pushed over, then Massimo Ambrosini’s header was pushed wide from the resulting corner – and after 90 seconds, they already had 0.6 xG. They absolutely dominated and eventually went in front as Montella sent Ronaldo through to finish then quickly doubled the lead from Cristian Zenoni’s parried shot. That made it party time and Ronaldo won a penalty that Recoba converted, Riquelme smashed home – making it 4-0 at the break after 18 shots, 3.23 xG and 72% possession. More of the same followed after the break and Montella tapped home a 5th before slacking off late on. Atalanta were Champions of Italy for the first time!
Atalanta celebrated the title in front of their own fans by putting 8 past bottom-side Anconca led by Montella’s hat trick. That saw them finish 1st on 88 points after 28 wins, 4 draws and just 2 defeats, scoring an incredible 128 (3.76 per game!) and conceding 48.
Recoba scored 30 league goals again, which this time was enough to be Top Goalscorer, and also provided a league-high 13 assists and 9 MOTM awards. Ronaldo was the star performer with a 7.92 average rating, from 20 appearances, ahead of Recoba’s 7.87 in 29 games. But Recoba was named Player of the Year, Ronaldo won Player of the Season (not sure what the difference is) and Young Player of the Season, Lombardi won both manager awards and Atalanta won Best Club of the Year.
Champions of Italy!
This was an unbelievable season for Atalanta as their ludicrous attack carried them to Italian glory. Recoba led the way with 30 goals, 14 assists and a 7.81 average rating in 31 games, followed by Montella (22 goals and 11 assists), Raúl (17 goals and 7 assists), Ronaldo (16 goals and 9 assists in 22 games), Morfeo (14 goals and 12 assists) and Carboni (11 goals and 11 assists).
Riquelme became the first Atalanta player to win European Golden Boy. But Ronaldo became the first to make the Goal50 list, coming in at 26th, while Juventus had the top 3 of Shearer, Fowler and Giggs.
The latest youth intake delivered 3 regens with decent potential in striker Rolando Bianchi, who briefly played for Man City before scoring 71 in 169 for Torino, and wingers Inácio Piá, who went on to play for Napoli, and Biagio Pagano, who became a lower league journeyman.
Atalanta’s maiden title takes the club into the traditional version of the Champions League, which is solely for the champions of European nations, for the first time. Join us next Saturday to see how that plays out!
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