The transfer to Atalanta has exceeded Teun Koopmeiners’ wildest expectations. The 23-year-old midfielder is fully enjoying his first six months in Bergamo after his departure from AZ. It was an emotional transfer summer that eventually resulted in a contract with the current number three in Serie A until mid-2026. Koopmeiners’ attitude was very difficult for Koopmeiners. “I had counted on more credit and cooperation from the club, more hoped for the moral factor,” says the former AZ captain.
Koopmeiners never uttered a cross word and he never sneered at the management. “Then it makes sense that I thought: hey, just give me that transfer a little something Lake. They also knew how much I wanted to take the step,” Koopmeiners said on Friday The Telegraph. The midfielder, in his own words, was able to ‘really move in AZ, not of that’. “Corona has had a huge impact on the club, on the whole of football. Players became worth less, so did I.”
“AZ has not gotten nearly as much for me as they would have received in the pre-corona era. But I got nothing at all! That would not have happened in non-corona times. I, but also my management, did not communicate in the transfer, which is quite common. We have been the biggest victim of the transfer fee.” The newspaper writes that it usually concerns fifteen percent of a transfer fee. In this case, the club from Alkmaar touched a transfer fee of fourteen million euros.
Koopmeiners would find it hypocritical to add to his choice for Atalanta that he did not do it for the money. “I knew what a wonderful salary was waiting for me here. Besides: if I really wanted to earn a lot of money, I would have gone to Moscow or England. I had plenty of those opportunities.” The whole picture had to be right. “You can make tons of money or join a really nice club, but if you drive home at one o’clock in the afternoon, the day will still be quite long.”
“If you then sit in the rain in a deserted village where you don’t speak the language, you will become very unhappy after a while.” Koopmeiners praises, among other things, the structure of the club. “Also the people, the competition, the environment and the culture that my girlfriend and I were so eager to get to know. We have been incredibly looking forward to that. (…) I had more of a village in mind, but the city is bigger than I expected. And whichever way you look, the whole area is a postcard. I’m in such a good place here, the transfer has exceeded my wildest expectations.”
Koopmeiners has so far played nineteen games for Atalanta in all competitions: fourteen in Serie A and five in the Champions League. Eleven times, the Dutchman was allowed to appear at the starting signal from trainer Gian Piero Gasperini. His first goal followed on November 30 in the 4-0 win over Venezia. Ten days ago he scored the winning goal against Hellas Verona (1-2).