Football fairytales eventually hit financial reality, but Atalanta still hope to dance at the Champions League ball
If you exclusively watched Atalanta in the Champions League this season, you might have concluded that this Cinderella story had reached midnight. Thrashed 4-0 by Dinamo Zagreb, and then beaten at home by Shakhtar Donetsk, the debutants are rushing to exit the European ball that they wished so desperately to attend. Their run in the tournament could effectively be ended by Manchester City over the next two matchdays, starting at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night.
There are no happily-ever-afters for footballing fairytales. Financial realities always come to bear eventually, and Atalanta remain a team representing a town of little more than 100,000 people. Even after rewarding their best players with new contracts in the summer, their first-team wage bill does not make it into Italy’s top 10 (though it is far larger than Dinamo’s …).
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