In Sunday’s match against Fiorentina, which Atalanta played and won at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo, Rafael Toloi made his 200th Serie A appearance wearing the Atalanta shirt. And our captain provided his usual solid, watchful, and determined performance, contributing to the victory.

From a personal point of view, this is another prestigious milestone for him; Toloi has now joined the small circle of players with at least 200 games in the top flight in the Atalanta shirt, sitting in tenth place overall in the special list of Serie A appearances in the club’s history. He has moved clear of Enrico Nova and is now just one appearance behind Cristiano Doni.

It has been a long journey that began on 13 September 2015 in a 2-2 draw between Sassuolo and Atalanta, when Rafa replaced Gianpaolo Bellini – the player with the highest number of appearances for the club and the record-holder in the ranking of games played in Serie A at 281 alongside Stefano Angeleri – in the final minutes of the game.