Atalanta BC shocked Italy as their superstar attack of Ronaldo, Raúl, Álvaro Recoba, Vincenzo Montella, Domenico Morfeo and Juan Román Riquelme blitzed them to a maiden Serie A title with 128 league goals in 1999 (2028). And those exploits saw Montella and Recoba installed as Atalanta legends.
Interest in their star players went to new levels, which forced Roberto Lombardi to impose asking prices and set low bids to auto-reject. For example, Riquelme, who wasn’t even that good last season, was wanted by 25 clubs and Morfeo and Raúl received pathetic offers of around £4m from the likes of Arsenal. For that reason, this will be the final episode of this Golazzo mini-series.
Atalanta’s worst nightmare came true as Ronaldo refused to discuss a new contract, and his £9m minimum fee was met by Barca, Bayern, Liverpool and Man U. And he eventually chose Liverpool. The good news was that Lombardi had another Brazilian superstar to replace him as, in January, Atalanta signed Ronaldinho for £300k from Gremio and sent him back on loan. He added more legendary regens led by goalkeeper Iker Casillas for £4.5m from Man United, striker Robbie Keane for £1.5m from Wolves and two free transfers in Tomas Rosicky from Sparta Prague and striker Diego Mililto from Racing Club.
Ronaldo’s departure saw Lombardi fully shift towards the 3-4-1-2 he’d introduced towards the end of last season. Ronaldinho tucks in behind Montella and Raúl and the midfield 3 is pretty special.
First Taste of the Old School Champions League
Lombardi believed that if Atalanta could beat the likes of Juve, Milan and Inter to win Serie A, they were more than capable of challenging in the traditional Champions league format, which consists solely of national champions. They were drawn in Group C alongside Aberdeen, Maccabi Haifa and Lombardi’s much-hated Man United, who he was really keen to beat after their irritating transfer tactics.
Their first-ever Champions League match was an easy 2-0 win at Aberdeen, who didn’t even have a shot. Lombardi particularly enjoyed Ezequiel Carboni’s double downing Man U 4-2 at home before beating Maccabi 2-0 at home and 3-0 away to qualify with 2 games remaining. Recoba scored twice in a 4-0 win over Atalanta before a 2-0 defeat at Man U.
That took Atalanta into the quarters and they got Bayern. Milito and Carboni cancelled out 2 Gabriel Batistuta strikes to earn a draw in Germany and late Riquelme and Montella goals earned a narrow home win. That took them into the semis against a decent Ajax side, and Raúl’s early goal earned a 1-1 in Amsterdam. But Atalanta bosse the home leg and eventually took the lead through Montella’s superb backpost header, which just about proved enough. And Atalanta were in the Champions League Final!
Montella Lights Up Atalanta’s Maiden Title Defence
The bookies still only fancy Atalanta to finish 6th with title odds of 15/1. Juve remain huge 4/6 favourites followed by Inter (10/1), Lazio (12/1), Milan (13/1) and Roma (14/1).
Montella played second fiddle to Ronaldo last season, but the Brazilian’s departure freed him up. He scored twice on the opening day, a hat trick as Juventus came to town, winners in consecutive away days at Lazio, Milan and Roma, and a late 5th as Recoba tore Cagliari apart. But they hit new levels in a stunning club record 10-0 demolition of Cesena, with Riquelme getting goal and assist hat tricks, Montella scoring another hat trick, and Recoba scoring twice off the bench late on.
They went on to win the opening 9 games in which time they’d already kept the same number of clean sheets as the entirety of last season (6), before strangely playing Juve again and drawing 3-3. The flying start ended with a bang as a tired and injury-hit team lost 3-0 at Inter in mid-December before a wasteful 2-2 at home to Napoli. But they hit back with a perfect January before Keane scored his 1st goal in a potentially decisive 2-1 win at home to Inter. Montella went 5 games without a goal from the start of 2000 (2029), but returned to form with a brace in a 2-0 win at Cremonese but a 2-1 loss at Fiorentina drew Juve and Lazio back into a title fight.
The run-in began by absolutely dominating Reggiana but somehow only winning 1-0 through Raúl’s header while Juve beat Lazio 2-1. Much more efficient performances followed as Montella bagged twice to down Sampdoria 4-0, Ronaldinho and Recoba bagged braces in a 7-0 hammering of Reggiana, and Riquelme followed suit in a 5-0 win at Napoli. They then had 2 weeks off to prepare for the Champions League Final (see below), in which time Juve thrashed Inter 4-1 and Cremonese 6-0 to move 3 points behind Atalanta heading into the final day.
Atalanta just needed a point at Parma to defend their title while Juve oddly played after them at home to Verona. Even more strangely, Atalanta had 6 players on international duty but Juve had 13 away and 2 more injured! Atalanta started well as Carboni’s shot deflected in and Ronaldinho was fouled for Morfeo to tuck away the penalty. And it looked all over after 22 minutes as Milito headed in at the back post to make it 3-0 from 2 shots on target. However, they suddenly gifted Parma 2 goals in 8 minutes before the ref equalled it up with a nonsense penalty award. But they just about held on for a 3-3 to defend their Serie A crown!
Atalanta wrapped up their 2nd title with 88 points after 28 wins, 4 draws and 2 defeats, which was exactly the same record as last season, scoring 119 and conceding 27 (9 and 21 fewer than last season). Montella led the way with an incredible 33 goals in 33 games, while Riquelme and Casillas set new league records with 22 assists and 18 clean sheets.
Champions League Final
Fans from Italy and England descended on Greece as Atalanta took on their irritating foes Man United. Lombardi annoyingly lost star man Recoba with a pulled calf, so he lined up:
Casillas; Zenoni, Ambrosini, Biava, Regonesi; Riquelme, Morfeo, Carboni; Ronaldinho; Raúl, Montella
Subs: Milito, Ferron, Carvalho, Rosicky, Pinardi, Keane, Zenoni
Atalanta came out flying as Montella flew down the left and passed inside for Carboni, who turned and curled delightfully into the top corner from just outside the box. United quickly seized control and levelled through Del Piero then annoyingly scored just before half time through Bergkamp. Lombardi threw everything at it and went to a ridiculously attacking approach, but nothing was working… until Carboni sent Montella through and the striker converted a last-minute equaliser.
That took the game to extra time, so Lombardi had to drop back into a more familiar formation. And his team again started well as the same duo combined to finish off a superb passing move, as Carboni picked the ball up in midfield and threaded a ball through for Montella to calmly tuck the ball into the far corner. United, having done nothing for 50 minutes, suddenly woke up and equalised again through Le Saux. But Atalanta fired back again in injury time as Riquelme was taken out close to the edge of the box and, without VAR, a penalty was awarded, which Montella coolly converted for his hat trick. Nothing happened after the break as Lombardi killed the game and United ran out of steam.
Atalanta won the Champions League to become Champions of Europe!
Leaving On An Iconic High
The Champions League Final proved just how good this Atalanta side was but, more specifically, how good Montella was. The Italian has clearly become the best striker in the world, despite what the game might think. He topped the goalscoring chart with an amazing 46 plus 10 assists in 46 games. Riquelme was also incredible with 19 goals and 28 assists, Raúl got 19 goals and 9 assists, Ronaldinho got 16 goals and 8 assists, Recoba got 14 goals and 20 assists, Carboni got 11 goals and 13 assists and Morfeo got 9 goals and 13 assists.
Lombardi’s CL success saw him become an iconic figure at Atalanta, behind the legendary Montella and Recoba. This save has been but a lot of fun. However, I can’t handle the unexplainable dwindling finances (we somehow ended the season with £1m in the bank despite turning a transfer profit), the number of teams coming in for players every summer, and other teams making offers for all our staff members. So it makes sense to leave Atalanta on a high.
Thanks for reading this Golazzo series and we’ll have plenty more FM coming your way before FM25.
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