We’ve always had a soft spot for Atalanta from the days when Italian football was broadcast to British homes for free on Sunday afternoons.
The Nerazzurri from the Alpine city of Bergamo in northern Italy’s Lombardy region had an awesome home kit, a completely individual crest featuring a Greek goddess, and of course, the flowing blonde locks of Argentine forward Claudio Caniggia.
Twenty-Nineteen will long be remembered as a vintage year for Atalanta fans after the club qualified for the Champions League for the first time in their history, having finished the 2018-19 season a highly creditable 3rd in Serie A.
Spanish firm Joma marked the achievement with a set of clean, classically styled kits for the 2019-2020 season, of which we make the away kit the star of the show.
OK, the step-up to Europe’s top table has been challenging, and unfortunately they lost their first three group stage matches to Dinamo Zagreb, Shakhtar Donetsk and Manchester City.
The glimpses we’ve seen of Atalanta in Europe have shown a smart set of away kits from Joma, principally revolving around the club’s traditional colours and featuring a golden depiction of a Goddess athlete from a vintage club badge.
The club was founded by students in 1907, and later joined forces with other local teams to form Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio.
Like so many classic colour combinations in sport, Atalanta’s black and blue kits came about as the result of a compromise following the merger of local teams.
The club take their name from the Greek deity, Atalanta, a virgin athlete and hunter who legend has it would only break her vow of celibacy for a partner who could beat her in a foot race.
The club are therefore nicknamed La Dea (the Goddess) by fans on the Curva Nord of Atalanta’s Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia.
Serie A sides have mastered the art of the understated away shirt over the years, with the clever application of home colours to the shoulders of a white jersey becoming one of our favourite design devices.
Joma’s kits can be a little hit and miss, and whilst we’d have liked to have seen a better collar; this is one of the best we’ve seen from the Toledo manufacturers and is certainly a look Atalanta can be proud of on their first Champions League adventure.
UPDATE: Atalanta recovered from losing their first 3 Champions League fixtures to miraculously reach the quarter finals, before an agonising injury time defeat to PSG ended an incredible season for La Dea.
Sartorial Soccer 