Atalanta sporting director breaks silence on Koopmeiners move to Juventus | OneFootball

Juventus made a significant acquisition this summer by signing Teun Koopmeiners from Atalanta, arguably one of the best players at the Bergamaschi club.

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.