The Evolution of the Atalanta Crest

The club was formed in the Italian city of Bergamo in 1907 as Società Bergamasca di Ginnastica e Sports Atletici Atalanta, referred to as Atalanta G.S. in short form. Their first kit was actually made up of black and white shirts, with black shorts, and these were reflected in the club's first crest, a shield featuring the club's name, Atalanta GS, at the top, with black and white stripes on the bottom half of the shield.

The name Atalanta was taken from the female hunter and heroine of Greek mythology, and the club are nicknamed La Dea (the Goddess) because of this. Whilst there was no symbol of her on the first crest, she would appear on all of the subsequent designs and would become synonymous with the club...

1920 saw the merger of Atalanta with another club from the city, Bergamasca. The new club took it's name from both clubs and was called Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio. The new club also took colours from each of the old clubs to create the new kit, so black was taken from Atalanta's black and white stripes, whilst blue was taken from Bergamasca's blue and white stripes. So, the famous black and blue kit was born.

1963 was a good year for Atalanta. Not only did they win their first, and only, major trophy, when they beat Torino to claim the Coppa Italia, but the profile of a figure of Atalanta was incorporated into the crest design for the first time too, in a running pose, with hair flowing. The black and blue stripes were used in the new design as well.

1981 saw the club adopt the iconic Atalanta head design for which they are now known across the footballing world. It's a brilliantly simple design that includes the black and blue colours in the background, the profile of Atalanta's face and flowing hair, all bordered in gold, black and white circles. Definitely one of our favourite 1980s football crests, it looked magnificent on the shirts of the 1980s and early 1990s Atalanta teams, with players such as Swedish star Glenn Strömberg and Argentinian Claudio Caniggia wearing them.

1993 saw the latest restyling of the crest. Quite similar to the one created in the 1980s, the iconic head and hair stayed the same, but the crest's outer shape was changed from a circle to an oval, this allowed the club's name and year of formation to be included above and below Atalanta's head.