The Bianconeri have a history of targeting top talent from other Serie A clubs, and they focused on Koopmeiners throughout the last transfer window.
Naturally, Atalanta was reluctant to part with the Dutch midfielder and was firm in negotiations, even after Juventus met their asking price.
To secure the move, Koopmeiners had to take drastic measures by refusing to train with Atalanta until the transfer to Juventus was finalised.
Ultimately, the midfielder succeeded in forcing through the transfer, and Atalanta’s loss turned into Juventus’ gain as they welcomed the Europa League winner to their squad.
Atalanta’s sporting director Tony D’Amico has now broken his silence on the transfer saga and said, as quoted by Tuttomercatoweb:
“It’s difficult for an Atalanta player to say no if Juve calls. And the Goddess is still the Goddess: it has always regenerated itself even through sales. We wanted to keep him, then his behavior put us in front of an unprecedented story. Three weeks without coming to Zingonia, we couldn’t believe it. And to say that the issue could have been handled in another way with hindsight. When you have to sell or buy a player it doesn’t just depend on you”.
Juve FC Says
Koopmeiners was bigger than Atalanta, and it was just a matter of time before he moved to a bigger club. If we had not signed him, another club could have done so.
But not for 60 m.
Koopmeiners is a good player but 60m for him was too many.
Classless by D’Amico, Koop told them summer 2023 this would be his last season, then again in January 24, then put in a transfer request when the window opened which they ignored.
You do something like that at a club like City and Pep would let them go immediately like he did with Alvarez, within days of the request he was an Atletico player. D’Amico lacks that professional standard
I don’t know what they are wondering, Koop is better than wasting the best years of his career on such a small team. He was already there for 3 or 4 years.
They wanted to keep Koop at all costs, even though he wanted to go. This was not a professional attitude.
At Juventus, they have always held the principle that whoever wants to leave, they do not want to keep them in Turin by force.
I think they’re shocked that winning the Europa League wasn’t enough to keep their players from leaving for bigger clubs.
Atalanta managers are football professionals, not fans. 🙂
They could have known that winning the EL meant nothing.
EL has no respect. And Atalanta will never be among the most important 10-20 football clubs in the world, among which Juventus is (and where every player wants to sign).