At the final whistle, unleash the party. The Gewiss Stadium, with a spectacular scarf, becomes an open-air theater once Atalanta-Turin is over. For the fans who sing and ask Gasp to stay (and he immediately answers yes after the match, «I am linked to Atalanta and I still will be»), per the players who parade carrying the Cup in triumph and also for the families, with Toloi and Ederson’s daughters doing cartwheels celebrating the feat (and little James Hateboer who scores becomes the new idol of the Curva).
«We Are The Champions»: to the tune of the most famous song in the world, Atalanta shows the most important images of the final in Dublin, played just four days ago, on the big screen, many still don’t believe it. When Lookman scored, the first of the three, a roar went up, as if the Nigerian had just scored it under the North and not at the Aviva Stadium on Wednesday night. Hands in hair and tears: disbelief and emotion
are the predominant feelings among the fans captured by the stadium camera. A show «to be dedicated to those who also cheered from up there», as Mondonico, recalls the speaker, and for this reason «The Irish Sky» is the perfect soundtrack. Overwhelmed, at times, by the fans’ chant, “It’s us, it’s us, we’re the champions of Europe.”
At a certain point, however, other choirs rise up, those who, after having celebrated the past, look with new eyes at the present and the future: «Stay in Bergamo», the cry of the Bergamo people for Gasperini, «We will win the tricolor», a mix between a promise and a desire. At 8.10pm the most significant hug arrives, after these fiery days: Antonio Percassi and Gasperini, together, lift the Cup towards the Curva, one, two, three times. And the announcement from the Grugliasco coach takes only the time for the reporter’s question after the match: «De Laurentiis has appreciated my work for many years», he admits referring to the call from the Napoli president, «but I’m tied up
at Atalanta and I will be again.”
Also to Scamacca, who is still enjoying, in his words, the trophy he just won: «The coach gave me the turning point, hammering me day by day. He helped me with how to move on the pitch. Arriving in the national team in these conditions was a goal of mine, we will have to defend the title and honor the jersey”, he said at the end of the match. «We wanted to give our fans a great match, especially after what we did on Wednesday. This victory is worth a lotit’s nice because today enthusiasm and the desire to give this joy to our fans pushed us.”
After having jumped with the curve, unbalancing to the right and left with the Nerazzurri scarf around his neck, Gasp in a precise conference breaks down the barriers and reveals the mystery: «There were moments in the last two years in which I thought and understood that perhaps the time had come to leave, but I would have done it in the best way, without controversy, it was a feeling that the moment might have come, they will have had it too, if you are with your wife for a long time then… Instead the president arrived to say “let’s continue”and he too had previously been a possibility, if you remember, then instead he said
“we continue together” and therefore we are happy to continue together.” The official status is there, the signature is not needed: «We haven’t done any renewal, until two years ago yes, last year only partial, this year I don’t know, there hasn’t been time so far, we talked about technical things but we haven’t even decided on the withdrawal date. But there’s no rush, I’m already rewarded beyond the contracts, they’ve always given me bonuses, now they’ll also have to deal with Pagliuca I think, we’ll see but it’s not a problem for me now, the only thing to understand was whether we should continue together or whether we had decided together to say “the time has come to stop”.
And yet this moment has not arrived. Could it be that he dreams of the Scudetto, like the fans? «They have to dream, sometimes dreams come true, like with the Europa League, but we are not yet ready to win it. It may be that one day we will be, even this season I don’t think we were the strongest, but we were the best.”
