Marten de Roon hit 300 matches for Atalanta. Strolling down memory lane with mandatory stops at Cittadella and Sassuolo, the Dutchman has truly seen it all: from PSG and Liverpool to Real Madrid and Manchester United. 300 battles on the field, 300 matches sweating profusely the shirt. Always. Following Atalanta’s motto, so carefully sewn on each collar, in letter and spirit, Marten made these words his code of conduit for the past eight seasons and entered the Gotha of the Atalanta legends: currently, the 6th player with the most appearances all-time, Marten sits: 5 matches away from Livio Roncoli; 23 from Cristiano Doni; 24 from Stefano Angeleri and 31 from Valter Bonacina. Given de Roon’s usual number, the second all-time place is already at hand and a feasible goal for the current season; with only Atalanta’s record man Gianpaolo Bellini (with  435 matches) left ahead. Plus, he already dons the title of foreign player with the most appearances all-time for Atalanta.

As the final whistle filled the Mapei Stadium sealing Atalanta’s 2-0 win over Sassuolo on Sunday, Marten couldn’t hide the sheer joy, that same joy that has been an underlying fil rouge of his path as a Nerazzurro started back on that 15th of August of 2015 in Bergamo in Round 3 of the Coppa Italia: in that 3-0 win over Cittadella, Marten also scored his first goal for the Club, a telltale sign of what was to come and of his unparalleled feelings for these colours.

What followed is already enshrined in the history of Atalanta: from the European nights and the historic Champions League matches (with the quarterfinals against PSG as acme) to the two Coppa Italia finals and the league records. Many highs, a few tears shed, and the pride and certainty of having always given it all for the shirt.

Marten’s story for Atalanta is truly something to behold. Some of the figures provided by OPTA through its Stats Performs help us trace a profile, albeit still partial, of de Roon’s stint for Atalanta: ever since his debut, he is the player with the best aggregate successful tackles in the Serie A (371) and the second-best in terms of retrievals excluding keepers (1588). Out of his tally of 300 matches, he featured in the starting XI 274 times (of which, 241times happened in the Serie A, 19 in the Coppa Italia and 40 among all European competitions, being a starter 21 times in UEFA Champions League matches, accruing to a total of 24,636 minutes), scoring 17 goals and providing 18 assists. Furthermore, in all competitions, Marten retrieved 1942 balls, won 439 tackles and 1430 duels, made 537 interceptions, completed 195 head clearances and created 183 chances.

The upshot of this lengthy and very satisfactory story is that many chapters are yet to be written and lived together.