Sartori: Who is the man behind Bologna’s Champions League miracle

Giovanni Sartori has played a vital role in Bologna‘s historic Champions League qualification this season after accomplishing the same feat at Chievo Verona and Atalanta in the past.

Thiago Motta, Joshua Zirkzee, Lewis Ferguson and Riccardo Calafiori have made headlines this season having contributed to Bologna’s Champions League qualification for the first time in history. The Rossoblu had played only once in Europe’s elite tournament when it was called ‘European Cup’ in 1964-65.

However, those working behind the scenes have also had a massive impact on Rossoblu’s results this season, and sporting director Sartori is surely among them.

Sartori: The man behind Bologna’s Champions League miracle

A former midfielder for Udinese, Milan and Sampdoria, among others, Sartori had already secured a Champions League qualification with Chievo Verona and Atalanta.

He was appointed as the Chievo director in 1992 after ending his playing career with the Gialloblu.

Sartori brought the team from Serie C to Serie A and in 2006, following the Calciopoli scandal, Chievo qualified for the Champions League playoffs but were eliminated by Levski Sofia. Sartori left the Verona-based club in July 2014 and was appointed by Atalanta the following month.

Like Chievo, Atalanta also qualified for the Champions League for the first time during Sartori’s spell. They did it in 2018-19 after finishing third in Serie A. La Dea obtained the same result in the following two seasons, and Atalanta were just two minutes away from reaching the UCL semis in 2019-20 when PSG scored two stoppage-time goals in the quarter-finals.

Sartori was appointed by Bologna in 2022 and in his second season at the club, he accomplished another historic feat.