Speaking on Alessandro Cattelan’s Supernova podcast, Atalanta midfielder Marten de Roon reflected on his former coach, Gian Piero Gasperini:
“I still speak to him from time to time. Thanks to him, I became a much stronger player: I played in the Champions League and earned caps for the national team. At Atalanta, he delivered so many results that you naturally end up following him completely, without even thinking about it.
There were times when I struggled to keep up with him too—it’s not easy. During the first few months, you arrive at matches with heavy legs and can barely move. But eventually you adapt, and you become capable of maintaining that intensity for the full ninety minutes, whereas before I could only do it for sixty.”
When asked about the possibility of Gasperini taking charge of Juventus, Marten de Roon offered his perspective:
“In my opinion, he would have found it difficult at Juventus. At Roma, he already knew a couple of the players, and the team hadn’t achieved particularly strong results over the past few years.”
He then added:
“In their minds, they may have thought, ‘If he managed to achieve those results with Atalanta, maybe he can do the same here.’ I think the players bought into his ideas for that reason—they were convinced he could lead them back into the Champions League and perhaps even help them challenge for the Scudetto.”
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