Our passion
Antonio Percassi is the President of Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio, the most important football team in Bergamo and its province since 1907, the year it was founded.
With 56 championships played in Serie A, Atalanta B.C. is the club that boasts the highest number of participations in the top Italian football league among the non-capital city teams of the Region. For this reason, it is considered the “Queen of the small towns.”
In the 1987-1988 season, the team won the “Coppa delle Coppe” semifinals.
On 2nd June 1963, Atalanta’s name was written in the record books of the Coppa Italia national championship. In the finals played at the San Siro stadium, Atalanta beat Turin 3-1 thanks to a hat-trick from the Bergamo native Domenghini (in that final game an impressive 7 out of the 11 players on the field for Atalanta were from Bergamo).
In 1949 Atalanta won the “Ragazzi” category, clinching its first Italian title in the youth sector and marking the beginning of the team’s growth and the introduction of some talented players. The black & blue club has always demonstrated its commitment to youth football activities. In the late fifties, Atalanta’s managers felt the need to make consistent investments in young people, creating a breeding ground with an organizational structure independent from that of the first team. Young men from outside the region began arriving at Bergamo, and the club understood the importance of supervising them in their private lives as well, entering into an agreement with the “Youth Home” which became a second home for many boys in the training camp. The same youth league where Antonio Percassi, followed years later by his son Luca, received their football education.
A defender with a good physique, Antonio Percassi, in the Serie B series season 1970-1971, made his debut on the first team. He debuted in Serie A in the 1972-1973 championship. The young Percassi became a pillar of Atalanta’s defensive line and played seven seasons wearing the black & blue jersey.
Antonio Percassi returned to the helm of Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio on 4th June 2010, when he acquired a majority stake in the club.
Following its recent move to the B series, the team’s main objective is to immediately return to the top league. At the end of the 2010-2011 season, the team gained a promotion to the A series – for the thirteenth time in the black & blue club’s history. Thanks to this success it set a new record for the number of promotions from the lower division to the top league, tying with Genoa for the number of season wins, an impressive 6.
The main priorities of team president Antonio Percassi is to strengthen the team’s positioning in the A series and to further the development of its youth league. Not only has he invested in the Bortolotti Center in Zingonia, the “home” of the first team and the youth league, he has also strongly supported the “Atalanta Store”. Antonio Percassi also spearheaded the “Progetto Neonati Atalantini”, the initiative that distributes 12 thousand black & blue t-shirts free of charge to eight maternity centers in Bergamo each year.
These mini t-shirts are designed especially for infants because, as President Percassi said, “If you’re from Bergamo, Atalanta must be in your heart”. For this reason, the President decided to offer the black & blue team shirt to all babies born in Bergamo hospitals, because what could be a better way to introduce the black & blue colours of Atalanta from the very start.
