Atalanta CEO describes how De Ketelaere made ‘perfect impact’: “Do you trust us?” | OneFootball

Charles De Ketelaere is currently living up to the hype that initially followed him to AC Milan from Belgium. However, the Rossoneri are not the ones profiting.

The story of De Ketelaere is a difficult one to assess. In many ways, the Rossoneri acted how you have to in elite-level football, whilst in other ways, the club made mistakes. Either way the situation is viewed, it is part and parcel of football.

Following a disappointing spell at San Siro, the Belgian moved to Atalanta initially on loan before the move was made permanent in the summer. Now, he is flying, and the attacker has been a key cog in La Dea’s title charge.

Today, Luca Percassi, the CEO of Atalanta, spoke to Corriere della Sera (via Calciomercato.com) about the decision to bring the Belgian to the club, more specifically about the way that the club finalised the decision to bring in the player.

“The principles are those of Zingonia: respect and dedication to work. This applies first and foremost to the boys, even if the dynamics are increasingly complex: they are besieged by agents from an early age. I’ll give you a positive example: Charles De Ketelaere.

“He had a perfect impact right from day one. He arrived at dawn and until 5 pm he had a myriad of agents and consultants around him: we counted 13, something never seen before.

“He was quiet and listened. Until we said to him: “Charles, do you trust us?”. “Yes”. “Then sign or we’ll never get to the end”. And he signed. There, we need guys like that.”