Atalanta writes a new chapter in the history of the European Champions League today by playing the quarter-final match for the first time in its history, a feat that was achieved thanks to a man who participated with the team as a player and used his money after retiring to lead the club to glory.
And meet Atalanta Paris Saint-Germain today in the first matches of the quarter-finals of the Champions League, which continues its matches in the Portuguese capital Lisbon.
The Italian club achieved a distinguished career in the Italian league last season, which qualified it to participate in the Champions League for the first time in its history, and made a surprise by reaching the quarter-finals, and was a step away from the golden square.
Behind the team's accomplishments is the businessman Antonio Percassi, whose story began with Atalanta in the 1970s, where he participated with the first team in 1971 when he was under 18 years old.
And Percassi was playing in defense, and participated in 110 matches with the team, before he decided to end his career when he was only 25 years old, preferring to focus on the business world.
And the current president of Atalanta was able to build an empire that includes companies operating in various fields, such as real estate, restaurants and cosmetics, and he owns more than a thousand stores, employs about 9 thousand people, and his personal wealth exceeds one billion dollars.
Percassi, 67, took over the presidency of Atalanta in the first period between 1990 and 1994, and returned to the leadership of the club in 2010 to start a project to develop the team, which culminated in climbing to the first division in Italy and occupying advanced positions, surpassing ancient clubs such as Milan and Rome.
The former player and the current businessman considered that the results achieved by the team during the past three years exceeded the most optimistic expectations, but confirms that "there is still a lot to do", and revealed in a previous interview about future projects with the team, most notably the development of the Athletic Azure stadium that was purchased from Municipal.