OFFICIAL – Rui Patricio is the new Atalanta goalkeeper

Rui Patricio to Atalanta: now it’s official

“Atalanta BC is pleased to announce that for the current season, 2024/25, Rui Pedro dos Santos Patrício, known simply as Rui Patrício, he will wear a Nerazzurri shirt. Over his long and distinguished career, the 36-year-old Portuguese goalkeeper has played more than 700 games for club teams and more than 100 with the Portuguese national team with whom he won the 2016 European Championship and the 2018 UEFA Nations League /19 as a main character.

Brought up in the youth system of Lieria and Mazzares, at the age of 12 he joined the youth section of Sporting Clube de Portugal with whom he made his first team at the age of eighteen. At Spórs he begins an important cycle that ends in 2018 after 466 games played, 182 clean sheets and 7 titles won (3 Portuguese Cups, 3 Portuguese Super Cups and 1 League Cup), coming to finished with 93 games as the player with the most appearances in UEFA Championships in the Portuguese club’s history. During his long militancy in Sports he was also happy to get third place on the list prepared by the IFFAS in 2016 and to be on the list of 30 players nominated for Ballon d’Or. After 12 seasons he leaves Sporting to try a new experience in England. From 2018 to 2021 he wore the Wolverhampton shirt, with which he surpassed the number of Premier League appearances (112 to be exact) and reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Europa League in 2020.

So in the summer of 2021 he was bought by Roma so he can also bring experience in the Italian championship in his rich professional background. In three seasons he played 129 matches for the Giallorossi, 96 of which were in Serie A, winning the UEFA Conference League as a major in 2022 and coming close to reaching the UEFA Europa League in next year. His career with the Portuguese national team was also long and distinguished, starting already in the youth team with his entire career in the various Underground teams starting from U16 and reaching the World Cup U20. In November 2010 he made his senior national team debut at the age of 22 in a 4-0 friendly win over Spain.

In 2016 he entered the history of his country by winning the European Championship: he started every game of that edition, he was sure to qualify for the semi-final with saving the fifth penalty from Poland, he kept a clean sheet in both semi-finals against him. Wales and in the final with France (his save against Griezmann, to whom a statue was dedicated in his hometown, Marrazes, in the town of Leira, was memorable) and in the end he was sent in the Top-11 of the competition. 2019 also saw success in the UEFA Nations League, won by beating the Netherlands in the final. With Portugal he participated in 3 World Cups, 5 European Championships and reached 108 games played, becoming the most famous goalkeeper in the history of the Portuguese national team. The Percassi family, the Pagliuca family and the whole Club warmly welcome Rui, wishing him every happiness – personally and as a team – in the Nerazzurri shirt.”