Four years ago this week, Pierluigi Gollini played his 20th and final game between the sticks for Aston Villa.
After just six months in the Midlands, the fresh-faced shot-stopper was heading back to Italy with his tail between his legs, a once-glittering reputation taking a beating in the reeds and the thistles of England’s second tier.
As then-Villa boss Steve Bruce explained, a move to an historic institution of Britain football – a proud old club who suffered the ignominy of relegation a few weeks earlier – was too much, too soon for a 21-year-old goalkeeper.
“For me, he needs to go and play and learn his trade. I think it was a little bit too early for Pier, at this stage of his career, to come to Villa,” Bruce told the club’s website after Gollini joined Atalanta in January 2017 for £3.75 million (BBC).
Flash forward to December 2020 and it is fair to say Gollini has put that error-ridden spell in England’s second tier behind him.
On Wednesday night, the once-capped Italy international produced one of the finest performances of his career as an out-of-sorts, crisis-hit Atalanta side claimed a pressure-relieving 1-1 draw with Serie A champions Juventus.
Even the great Cristiano Ronaldo couldn’t beat a man who, once upon a time, lost his place at Aston Villa to Mark Bunn.
“He is a champion and champions miss penalties too,” Juve coach Andrea Pirlo reflected after his Portuguese superstar failed to find a way past Gollini from 12 yards.
“Gollini has performed miracles,” added opposite number Wojciech Szczesny.
Remarkably, that wasn’t even Gollini’s best save on the night. Moments later, he used every inch of his 6ft 4 frame to claw away an Alvaro Morata effort, displaying the kind of cat-like reflexes which saw him laballed Gianluigi Buffon’s heir apparent as a precocious teenager.
A move to England might have come too soon for Gollini but the former Aston Villa youngster has become a man in Bergamo.
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