Atalanta coach feared for his life
WHEN Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini was struggling with the coronavirus in mid-March, the prospect of entering Bergamo’s hospital — which was overflowing with COVID-19 patients at the time — made him fear for his life.
“Every two minutes an ambulance passed by — it seemed like a war,” Gasperini said. “At night, I would think ‘If go in there (the hospital), what will happen to me?’”
Fortunately for Gasperini, he quickly recovered and did not have to check into the Pope John XXIII hospital. The coach only recently confirmed that he had the virus when the entire team was tested 10 days ago, he said in an interview with the Gazzetta dello Sport published yesterday.
The 62-year-old Gasperini started feeling sick on March 9, a day before Atalanta played at Valencia in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16.
He said that when he returned to Bergamo, which was quickly becoming the epicenter of the pandemic, “I didn’t have a fever but I felt destroyed and as if I had a 40-degree (Celsius, or 104 Fahrenheit) fever.”
Many experts have pointed to the firstleg game between Atalanta and Valencia on February 19 in Milan as one of the biggest reasons why the virus was so deadly in Bergamo. The match has been dubbed “Game
Zero” by the local media.
With the virus advancing rapidly across Europe, the second leg in Valencia was played without fans. Still, more than 35 percent of Valencia’s team became infected.
More than 16,000 people have died from the virus in the Lombardy region containing Bergamo, which has been one of the hardest-hit cities.
“It will take years to really understand what happened,” Gasperini said. “Every time I think about it, it seems absurd: The high point of our sporting (achievement) coincided with the city’s deepest pain.
“I feel more Bergamasco now,” added Gasperini, who is from the Turin area.
Previously the only member of Atalanta who was confirmed as testing positive for the virus was reserve goalkeeper Marco Sportiello.
Atalanta advanced to the quarterfinals 8-4 on aggregate but has not played since then with soccer not due to restart in Italy until mid-June.
“Atalanta can help Bergamo recover, while respecting the pain and those in mourning,” Gasperini said. “It will take time to see people celebrating again in the piazzas or at the airport, but the Bergamaschi keep their fires burning under the ashes.
“There isn’t one player who left the city. More than one of them lost weight, which could also be the sign of psychological issues,” the coach added. “It’s difficult to read everyone’s repressed emotional state. Some of them had their families far away.
“One thing for sure, though, is that the squad remained connected with Bergamo’s suffering and it will bring that out onto the field.”
Serie A will return to action after a three-month absence on June 20, with Gasperini’s side sitting fourth in the table, 15 points behind leader Juventus.
Italian media reported that Atalanta’s home match will be played first as a symbolic gesture.
However, the Italian Cup, which was stopped at the semifinal stage, will be completed the week before the league restarts.
The league said in a statement on Saturday that it will complete the 25th round with the four postponed matches — Atalanta vs Sassuolo, Hellas Verona vs Cagliari, Inter Milan vs Sampdoria, and Torino vs Parma — on the weekend of June 20-21, and schedule the next round of matches in the following week.
There are 12 rounds left in Serie A.
(Agencies)