Lorenzo Pellegrini strikes to settle derby but his future may lie beyond Roma

Lorenzo Pellegrini was supposed to be anywhere but the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday. Roma tried to get rid of him in January, offering him to Inter as a makeweight in their unsuccessful bid to sign Davide Frattesi. They pushed even harder in August, contracting intermediaries to find him a new home. Talks were held with teams including West Ham and Besiktas, but none were able to strike a deal.

How had it come to this? Pellegrini was once a beloved club captain. A Rome-born Roma supporter, who joined the club’s academy before his 10th birthday, he was the heir to Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi – latest in a line of homegrown skippers.

A story foretold, until this script was rewritten. Popular in his younger years, Pellegrini had more recently become a scapegoat for disgruntled elements of the Giallorossi’s fanbase.

There was not one incident that turned supporters against him, but rather a slow build-up of grievances. Some were straightforward if subjective: a perception that his performances had plateaued at a level below what should be expected from one of Roma’s best-paid players.

Others were built on hearsay and misinformation. After De Rossi was fired as Roma manager four games into last season, Pellegrini’s car was set upon by supporters who accused him of conspiring against his former teammate. Shouts of “Take off the armband” were accompanied by demands to know “how many more do you want to get rid of?”

Pellegrini, you see, had also been blamed for José Mourinho’s sacking previously. On the day he was let go, the Portuguese left a ring Roma’s players had given him for his 60th birthday in Pellegrini’s locker, reportedly together with a note reading: “I hope you can win a lot in the future, and I hope you can become a better man.”

Ultra groups made it clear whose side they were on in this breakup, hanging a banner outside the training ground declaring Pellegrini to be Roma’s “weak ring”. But did the player truly deserve any of it? His opinion was indeed sought by owners before each manager’s sacking, but in both cases he had defended their work.

In a later interview with the newspaper Il Messaggero, Pellegrini said he had called Mourinho to clear the air, saying: “He was told some things about me that were absolutely not true… we chatted for a long time.” Likewise, after De Rossi’s sacking, he described reports of his involvement as “pure science-fiction.”

The departing José Mourinho left a note for Pellegrini that read: ‘I hope you can win a lot in future, and I hope you can become a better man.’ Photograph: Angelo Carconi/EPA

None of which seemed to change the dynamics of Pellegrini’s situation at Roma. Gian Piero Gasperini took over as manager in June knowing a player who had once been considered as one of the club’s greatest assets was now a potential liability.

The manager defused one tension by implementing a new policy whereby the captain’s armband would be worn in each game by the player with the highest number of appearances for Roma – effectively stripping Pellegrini of the role (Stephan El Shaarawy and Bryan Cristante would now be ahead of him in the pecking order) without making an explicit decision to do so. He had taken the same approach at Atalanta.

Pellegrini underwent a pair of surgeries over the summer – the first on his hamstring, the second to fix a deviated septum. Gasperini prepared a Roma team without him. The Giallorossi won their first two games of the season 1-0, at home to Bologna and away to Pisa, before losing by the same score to Torino.

Those, though, were just a warm-up. Sunday was this season’s first big landmark: the derby against Lazio, a game a new manager cannot afford to lose. Nobody could question Gasperini’s credentials, after his work establishing Atalanta as Europa League winners and regular Champions League qualifiers over the past decade, but plenty of Roma fans still needed to be won over by a man they disliked as a rival.

Gasperini acknowledged his dilemma about how to reintegrate Pellegrini on the eve of the game. The player was back to full training, meaning decisions had to be made. “Can I get the old Pellegrini back by myself?” he asked. “Is that OK for the club? Is that OK for the fans? This is a potentially high-level player. But if he is unpopular with the fans now, I can’t do it. If he’s unwanted by the club now, I can’t do it.”

He sounded uncertain. Perhaps that was only a bluff. A day later, Pellegrini was in the starting lineup to face Lazio, sitting in front of Cristante and Manu Koné to support the attack in a 3-4-1-2.

Maybe Gasperini knew his history. Pellegrini had scored three times before in the Rome derby, all of them gems: a spinning backheel in 2018, a spectacular free-kick in 2022 and another top-corner finish even as his future was being discussed at the start of this year. All of them at the same end, the Tevere, Lazio’s Curva, rubbing it in the face of their rivals.

How else could things go on Sunday? Neither side started especially well, but Lazio looked slightly the more dangerous side until an error in possession by their left-back Nuno Tavares allowed the ball to run to Matías Soulé inside the box. He played a square pass to Pellegrini, who finished first-time into the bottom left corner.

Pellegrini’s shot, seven minutes before half-time, nestles in the bottom corner to give Roma three points against Lazio. Photograph: Fabrizio Corradetti/LaPresse/ Shutterstock

Too overcome to celebrate, Pellegrini stretched his arms out until Cristante and Evan Ferguson arrived to embrace him. As he walked back to halfway he gestured a kiss towards Roma’s supporters in the Curva Sud. “There’s one constant to all of this,” Pellegrini said at full-time. “I love Roma.”

Perhaps those fans can find their way to loving him again, too. His goal was enough to decide this derby – giving Roma their first win as the ‘away’ team in the ground they share with Lazio since 2016.

The Biancocelesti had pushed for an equaliser and nearly got one from their own homegrown vice-captain, Danilo Cataldi, who whipped a shot against the post in injury time. But they also lost their heads, Reda Belahyane earning a red card for raking his studs down Koné’s calf and Mattéo Guendouzi another for berating the referee at the end.

It was a game low on quality, between teams still working out who they want to be under new managers – or a returning one in Lazio’s case, Maurizio Sarri back in the dugout after a year away. Gasperini was explicit at his pre-game press conference saying he has no intention of changing his fundamental man-to-man, high-pressing approach. But he also acknowledged that he is still working out which pieces fit where from the squad at his disposal.

A returning Pellegrini creates dilemmas. Gasperini has said already that he believes Cristante and the 20-year-old Niccolò Pisilli do their best work when allowed to play closer to goal. They cannot all fit at No 10.

Still, these are easier problems to contemplate after a derby win, and with nine points earned from four games. Gasperini’s Roma are a long way off the rampaging brilliance of his best Atalanta sides, but they have kept three clean sheets already. Both Ferguson and Matías Soulé – 20 and 22 respectively – are showing enough up front to believe a bright future might not be far off.

The question of whether their former captain will have a part in it remains open. At full-time on Sunday, Pellegrini went under the Curva Sud to celebrate with Roma’s fans. Nobody could tell him to take off the armband anymore.