"I felt worse" couldn't "sleep well" and I said to myself "I can't go now" - Atalanta Coach talks about his COVID-19 experience

Gian Piero Gasperini. An Italian manager and former footballer. Gasperini is the current Head Coach of Italian Serie A club Atalanta. He played for Juventus, Palermo, Pescara among other. He's managed Inter Milan, Genoa, Palermo...currently with Atalanta. Photo of Gasperini: UEFA- Handout via Getty

Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini reveals he had COVID-19 on the day of their Champions League match with Valencia. ‘I thought I can’t go now, I have so much still to do...’


The pandemic was already starting to spread by the time Atalanta visited Valencia to win 4-3 on March 10, with no fans allowed in the Mestalla.

“I felt ill the day before the Valencia game, then on the afternoon of the match I felt even worse,” Gasperini told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“If you look at the pictures, I did not look good on the bench. That was March 10. The two nights afterwards, I did not sleep well. I didn’t have a fever, but I felt like I did.

“Every two minutes, an ambulance would go past, as there’s a hospital near the training ground. It sounded like a warzone. At night I would think, what will happen to me if I go into that hospital? I can’t go now, I have so much still to do…

"The team received food and 2008 Dom Perignon from a Michelin-star chef who is a fan of Atalanta. I tasted it and said: ‘This is water…’ The food tasted like bread. I had completely lost my sense of taste.

“I stayed at the Zingonia training ground for three weeks. When I did get back to my home in Turin, I always respected social distancing with my wife and children. As I never had a fever, I didn’t do the swab test, but 10 days ago the blood tests confirmed I had COVID-19.

“I have the antibodies, but that does not mean I am now immune.”

Bergamo provided the most haunting image of the pandemic in Italy, a convoy of military trucks taking coffins for cremation to other cities, because their facilities could not keep up with the growing pile of bodies.

“It’ll take years to truly understand what happened, because this was the centre of the tragedy."