Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini has announced the exclusion of Teun Koopmeiners from the European Super Cup match against Real Madrid due to the player’s rebellion against the club.
Koopmeiners has received an offer from Juventus and has completed all the details with the Old Lady, but Atalanta is still against selling the player due to the financial offer from Juve.
Because of this, Koopmeiners has missed training and is pressuring Atalanta to accept his sale, which Gasperini has described as “blackmail” that will keep him out of the team forever.
The Italian coach said in a press statement, “He doesn’t want to play with us, he doesn’t even want to train, and he wants to pressure us after agreeing with Juventus.”
He added, “The club has been feeling blackmailed in recent days, with these actions the player cannot be useful to us or his teammates and will not play with us in the coming period.”
He concluded, “We will play the European Super Cup against Real Madrid at a level that is much lower than what we were against Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League final.”
Koopmeiners’ absence will be the third for Atalanta against Real, after the club’s top star Gianluca Scamacca suffered a cruciate ligament rupture, and his teammate Giorgio Scalvini suffered the same injury.
