Atalanta co-owner Stephen Pagliuca explained why the Percassi family were so important in his decision to invest in the club and touched on some of the young talent the club currently has. The American businessman, co-owner of the the Boston Celtics NBA team, acquired a 55% stake in the club in February 2022 alongside other investors, and was named co-chairman. Speaking with CBS Sports about the club, he talked about the growth potential for the team and the importance of it’s youth sector which has produced so many impressive young talents over the years:
“The Percassi family is a big reason why we got interested in Atalanta, we met them through a partner of mine in Italy, Luca Bassi, and really hit it off and they were looking to really build the team and build a global brand, and we’ve done that here with the Celtics. And I have Italian heritage. My grandfather and grandmother came from Muro Lucano near Avellino. It was funny, as soon as I got off the plane, I felt very at home in Bergamo. The people are incredible and the whole town lives for the football team.”
“The key to Atalanta has been the fantastic job that the Percassis have done with their academy. There are over 400 boys in the academy from six to 16 and they have many guys on the national team. So for a smaller city like that, the academy is absolutely critical, investing in that. That’s been a fantastic asset. And then they’ve had a great scouting department globally and you’ve seen players like Rasmus Højlund, Ademola Lookman that we brought in. So, we think we can compete with anybody and we’ll create a flywheel of success and bring in more sponsors and we’re actually renovating the stadium. We’ve done one end already, putting in luxury boxes. So a whole bunch of things can be done to lift it to the premier level, but it’s a fantastic team and a fantastic city.”
“Lookman’s very bright and very driven. I was at [a recent practice], probably six o’clock at night and everybody else shuffled in the locker room and Lookman was still out there. It was getting dark, it was cold and he was practicing penalty kicks, so he’s a hard worker. Højlund is as well and Højlund is just a physical specimen. When I met him in Sturm Graz, I was surprised he was 19 because he was more filled out than even the NBA players we have here. He’s six-foot-four, blazing fast, left-footed and our scouting staff did a great job to identify him and we really wanted him to come.”
“I came with Luca (Percassi’s son) and Lee (Congerton, head of senior recruitment) and by happenstance when we sat down, his mother was talking about her background and she’d been a great soccer player as well, football player. And it turns out that she played here in Nashville, New Hampshire, and had lots of friends and the Celtics were doing great in those days,” Pagliuca said. “And so we had part of the package. We’ve offered them a trip to court-side Celtics [seats] as soon as the season is over.”
