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In the seventh season with Atalanta and after playing the first nine league games as a starter, the Argentine captain of Bergamo, Alejandro Gómez, nicknamed the “Papu”, was first demoted to reserve and later excluded from the players. called for team matches. The company has not publicly explained why, although the reconstructions most shared by the newspapers go back to the Champions League match played at home against Midtjylland on December 1, during which there was a dispute between the player and the coach, Gian. Piero Gasperini, would have broken the relationship between the two in a seemingly final way.
After the game against Midtjylland, Gómez remained among the squads for the game against Ajax on December 9, which was decisive for the qualification to the knockout stages of the Champions League, which was later obtained thanks to the victory. With the qualification obtained, the general director of the company, Luca Percassi, had ignored the question: “In all families there are discussions, we make ourselves heard when it is necessary to protect the company by relying on behavior and elections.” Gasperini did the same at the press conference: “I look at the situation on the pitch, I have to feel free to make my decisions. It is a principle that cannot be ignored, so the value of Papu and the rest of the players is visible to all ».
However, the situation has not improved since then. Gomez remained on the bench in the game against Fiorentina on December 13. The next day, through his Instagram profile, he wrote: «Dear Atalanta fans, I am writing to you here because I have no way of defending myself and talking to you. I just wanted to tell you that when I leave you will know the truth of everything. You know me and you know who I am. I love you, your captain. ‘ On December 16, Gómez played a little over half an hour in Turin against Juventus, after which he was excluded from the squad (and not officially put out of the squad, so as not to lose the player without compensation for trials) against both Roma and against Bologna.
(Alfredo Falcone / LaPresse)
Meanwhile, the team does not seem to be as affected by the matter. After losing some points in the League to focus on qualifying for the Champions League, Atalanta has begun to recover in recent days beating Roma and Fiorentina and drawing against Juventus, also thanks to the recovery of the Slovenian attacking midfielder Josip Ilicic, decisive against Roma, and the offensive contribution of the Ukrainian Ruslan Malinovskyi, who has been in Bergamo for a year, and Matteo Pessina, who returned this season on loan to Verona.
The question from which the dispute between Gómez and Gasperini in the Atalanta-Midtjylland interval seems to have arisen would be a tactical one, at least according to the reconstructions of the Gazzetta dello Sport. In the first part of the game, Gómez would have ignored the indications of Gasperini, who asked him to focus above all on the offensive phase to make the team’s game less predictable and compensate for Gómez’s difficulties to maintain total freedom on the field of I play in a high season and therefore. more expensive than usual. From these misunderstandings, probably dragged on for a few weeks, the fight in the interval would be born and then all the consequences.
On January 4, the winter transfer window will open: it is not ruled out that Gómez may leave Atalanta starting next month, also taking into account the presence of different alternatives in his role and his salary of around 2 million euros per year. the highest of the rose. However, the club never used definitive tones, as Gasperini did, who before the postponed match against Udinese earlier this month had explained: “Gomez is the player I have used the most in recent years. Before these years he had had a career below his enormous potential, and I think he will continue to do great things in Bergamo for as long as he wants.
Gomez, now 32 years old, came to Italy in 2009 with Catania, a team very active in the Argentine market at the time. In the three seasons he spent in Sicily he became one of the most interesting players in Serie A, but in 2013 he decided to accept the rich offer of a Ukrainian team, Metalist Kharkiv, which later ended in disgrace due to the consequences of the war in Ukraine. Precisely because of the war, Gómez left the country after only one season, accepting Atalanta’s offer two years before the start of the cycle that began in 2016 with the hiring of Gasperini. In recent years he has been the most important and symbolic player for Atalanta, the strongest in history, during which he also made the first five appearances of his career with the Argentine team.
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