While it’s true that the Italian top flight is home to many nationalities when it comes to professional football players, compared to some of the other top nations across Europe, it seems like all of the top talent from that nation plays in the country. In the current listing for the national team, there are only 6 players out of 27 that aren’t in Serie A. Compare that with 16 out of 23 for France, 7 out of 23 for Spain and 5 out of 21 for Germany with only England having a truly better ratio at one player out of the 20 listed playing outside of England.
Today, we’re going to be taking a deeper look at the current Roma squad and a look at the nationalities within that squad. It has been said that this current squad led by Jose Mourinho is the most nationally diverse squad in Roma’s entire history.
People talk about chemistry between players, meaning those from the same nations removing language as a barrier. But with the right manager and a system the players click with, this isn’t even an issue. So, to start with, it seems like the first place to start is at home. For our detailed breakdown of each players nationality, we took to transfermarkt.co.uk as they show players with dual nationality, even though they can only represent one nation, it’s still worth looking at.
Of the 28 players listed on the AS Roma page, there are 12 players listed with Italian as their nationality, however. 6 of those are listed as having dual nationality. You have Roger Ibañez listed as Brazilian/Italian, Marash Kumbulla listed as Albanian/Italian, Bryan Cristante listed as Italian/Canadian, Cristian Volpato listed as Italian/Australian, Stephan El Shaarawy listed as Italian/Egyptian and finally Paulo Dybala listed as Argentinian/Italian. Among those 6 players alone you have quite a diverse profile for the squad.
Including Italy there are 18 different nationalities in the squad. From England you have Chris Smalling and Tammy Abraham. Tammy is another dual nationality player with Nigerian descendants. You have Ola Solbakken from Norway, Ante Coric from Croatia, Nicola Zalewski from Poland, Benjamin Tahirovic from Bosnia-Herzegovina, who also has Swedish heritage. Rui Patricio from Portugal, Mile Svilar with Serbian and Belgian eligibility. Then Diego Llorente of Spain, William Bianda of France and Cameroon, Zeki Celik of Turkey. Rick Karsdorp and Georgino Wijnaldum of the Netherlands. Gini is another dual nationality, his secondary nationality is from the nation of Suriname! Finally there is Ebrima Darboe from The Gambia and Mady Camara from Guinea.
As you can see, there are people from quite literally all over the world within this Roma squad. Each of these individuals will be from a wide range of backgrounds, with every single one of them bringing something different to the table. And this is the whole point. Mourinho is a shining example of how to bring the world together, even if it is just on the football pitch.
Now, we’ve taken a look at the nationalities of the current Roma squad, it’s time to look at their next fixtures and how the bookies feel Mourinho’s philosophy is going to work out in those coming games! Starting out with their next Serie A fixture.
Roma find themselves in 5th place after Juventus recently had their 15 point deduction overturned—and with seven matches remaining, things are tight in the battle for Champions League places in Serie A.
The Giallorossi have a huge showdown this weekend versus Milan, who overtook them in the standings despite being level on points.
When the teams met at the San Siro in January, the teams couldn’t be separated. With the game finishing 2-2. But the scoreline doesn’t say it all, Milan had a 2-0 lead up until the closing stages of the game when goals from Roger Ibanez and Tammy Abraham rescued a huge point for Roma. But what can we expect in the upcoming game at the Stadio Olimpico?
Well, there are a few things to look at here. Firstly, Canadian Bryan Cristante has been massively important for Roma, holding things down in the midfield and he is going to be a key factor in this game as Roma need to win the midfield battle if they hope to leapfrog AC Milan again and get themselves back in the champions league places and a big performance from Bryan is a must here.
Next is a lack of goals from Tammy Abraham, he has played in all 31 games this season, 9 of them as a sub, but has only scored 7 goals. Tammy must get his shooting boots on if they want to fire themselves ahead here! Finally Rui Patricio is going to need to be on his game if he wants to keep out the likes of Rafael Leao and Olivier Giroud!
So now we’ve looked at what Roma will need to do to get a result in this huge upcoming game, how do the experts see it unfolding?
With Milan coming off the back of a 2-0 win over Lecce and Roma coming off the back of a 3-1 defeat against Atalanta, the teams will have vastly differing mindsets heading into this game. However, according to most Sports betting sites in Canada, it appears as if they don’t see anything to separate the two teams again. Both teams come in at +175 to win the game which would see a return of $13.75 from a stake of $5. While a draw would return $15.50 from the same stake with odds of +210. So it seems like we should be expecting a tight affair in this one, but could the home field advantage make a big difference for Roma?
Roma are also one of the 4 teams who have made it to the Europa League Semi Finals due to be played on Thursday 11th May. They take on Bayer Leverkusen at home in the first leg. Roma begin this tie as favourites with odds of +115 returning $10.75 from $5, while Bayer Leverkusen return $16 with their +220 odds.
The other Semi Final sees neighbours Juventus taking on Sevilla. Juve are heavy favourites here at -125 returning $9 from $5 while Sevilla come in at +350, returning $22.50 from $5. For reference, the odds for all of these teams to lift the trophy are as follows. Juventus +200 ($15), Bayer Leverkusen +250 ($17.50), Roma +300 ($20) and Sevilla +350 ($22.50). All returns based on a stake of $5.
Jose Mourinho believes in building a team that isn’t just talented, but also representative of the world we live in. He believes that a diverse squad is a stronger squad and has said that he wants his players to come from different backgrounds and cultures so that they can learn from each other and bring different perspectives to the team. He also has a strong belief that a more diverse squad has a higher chance of being successful, due to the unit having a more adaptable and resilient nature. As we’ve shown in this piece, the current Roma squad is a fantastic example of Mourinho’s philosophy in action.
Now, Roma fans. How do you feel about Mourinho’s philosophy? Is having an incredibly diverse team something you feel pride in or is it something you don’t really think twice about?
Would you like to see more home grown players in the squad or do you just want to see the team bringing home titles, regardless who wears the crest?
It’s fair to say we all like to see a good home grown representation within our clubs, but is it worth putting the team at a disadvantage just so they can have more home grown players?
Put it this way, if you could have a striker who was Italian born and raised scoring 15 goals a season, or a Spanish striker scoring 20-25, which one would you pick?
