Italian Serie A club Atalanta BC might get a big lump of coal in its stocking this holiday season if social media users are correct about its annual Christmas jersey.
Atalanta released the jersey on its website and social media on Wednesday, Dec. 15, and planned to wear them at home against AS Roma on Saturday, Dec. 18. It features Atalanta’s usual blue and black stripes, with the black stripes fading out in a halftone pattern near the bottom of the jersey to provide a blue background for a silhouette of a city skyline.
Shortly after the release, the club and manufacturer Joma were swamped with replies accusing them of using the skyline of the city of Turin instead of that of the city of Bergamo, where Atalanta are based.
The telltale sign, many say, is the building in the middle of the silhouette, which looks an awful lot like the Mole Antonelliana in Turin.
UPDATE (10:45 a.m. MT): SportsLogos.net Forums user VampyrRabbitDesign points out that a vector graphic available to download on Adobe Stock looks very close to the one used on the Atalanta jersey, and it’s titled “Skyline Turin.”
Turin is approximately 185 kilometres west-southwest of Bergamo, and is home to two of Atalanta’s Serie A rivals: Juventus and Torino FC.
The jersey released on Wednesday also features the same collar pattern as Atalanta’s other 2021-22 jerseys and commemorative printing on the left sleeve. The blue stripes contain a faint crosshatch pattern, and a white outline of a Christmas tree is included on the lower right hem.
Atalanta have been wearing special Christmas kits since 2010. According to the club’s website, game-worn kits will be auctioned off after the Roma match to benefit the Associazione Amici della Pediatria onlus (the Association of the Friends of the Paediatrics non-profit organizations of social utility) “that have been volunteering for the Hospital of Bergamo (ASST Papa Giovanni XXIII) since 1990.”
As of publication, Atalanta had not yet responded to any of the allegations leveled on social media.
UPDATE (2:36 p.m. MT): Joma has issued a press release that was posted to Atalanta’s website, in which they insist they got the right city skyline on the jerseys:
Concerning the news regarding the Bergamo “skyline” detail that is present on the jersey that Atalanta will wear on the occasion of the last home match before the Christmas break, Joma Sport intend to confirm and to underline that the “skyline” detail inserted as the main and distinctive element of the jersey, designed and produced by Joma for the special occasion of the 12th Edition of the Christmas Match, represents a profile of the City of Bergamo and is not referred to any other city.
Since it is a stylisation, we are aware that some details may not refer to the public imagination, and we are aware of the fact that there are numerous representations of the skyline of Bergamo. Within this collaboration, having been Atalanta’s partner since the 2017/2018 season, we wanted to represent a specific point of view of the Upper City of Bergamo. With this jersey, which has been specifically produced for the 2021 Christmas Match and on which Atalanta’s colours blend with the skyline, we wanted to boost some elements of Bergamo, being aware, above all, of the fact that the jersey would receive particular attention because of the charitable purposes of the Christmas auction organized by the Club.
It is with regret that we note that none of the media outlets, especially local ones, contacted either Joma or Atalanta to ask for information on the “skyline” detail inserted on the jersey, before starting a controversy on social media and spreading an inaccurate press review that made us feel deeply disappointed, considering the charitable purposes the initiative is based on.
UPDATE (Dec. 18 – 11:32 a.m. MT): Photos from today’s Atalanta-Roma match posted to Atalanta’s Twitter account shows that the club in fact did not wear the jerseys with the skyline unveiled earlier this week. Instead, they wore their regular home kits:
The Christmas kits also appear to have been removed from Atalanta’s web store.
A statement posted to Atalanta’s website before the match simply reads:
The Club is sad to announce that, considering what happened in the last few days, today the team will wear the first kit to avoid any further exploitation and because of the importance of the match.
Feature graphics courtesy @Atalanta_BC / Twitter and Wikipedia
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