Andrea Belotti opened his goalscoring account for Roma on 15th September by converting a chance in a Europa League win over HJK Helsinki.
His first goal for the club in his fifth appearance was the third in a 3-0 win for Jose Mourinho’s side against their Finnish opponents.
With Tammy Abraham acting as the first-choice striker in Serie A, Belotti made the most of his opportunity to be a starter in the Europa League. Although his finish wasn’t the prettiest, it was a reward for a hard-working performance at Stadio Olimpico.
Having drawn a blank from his first three league cameos (in fairness, the longest lasted just 45 minutes) and the opening Europa League match of the 2022-23 group stage, Belotti is now off the mark.
In doing so, he has followed in the footsteps of a few players to score for the club in Europe before they have managed to get a league goal as a Roma player.
Here are the nine most recent examples before Belotti.
Eldor Shomurodov
One of Belotti’s attacking colleagues at the time of his arrival, Eldor Shomurodov had joined Roma one year earlier, also to play the role of backup striker.
On August 19th, 2021, the Uzbekistan international made his debut for his new club in the first leg of a Europa Conference League play-off tie against Trabzonspor, three days before the Serie A season was due to commence.
Over in Turkey, Shomurodov marked his Roma debut with a goal, which proved to be the winner in a 2-1 triumph on the day. Although Mourinho’s men went on to win the competition proper, the former Genoa man didn’t score in it again.
Tommaso Milanese
After making an assist on his Roma debut in a Europa League fixture against CFR Cluj, Tommaso Milanese got a couple more chances in the 2020-21 group stage.
The midfielder, a product of Roma’s academy, went on to score his first goal for the club on his first start, which was an equaliser against CSKA Sofia on 10th December. However, the game drifted away from Roma – who were already through to the knockout stage – and it finished as a 3-1 loss.
Somewhat surprisingly, Milanese never played for Roma again, with even brief cameos evading him.
Riccardo Calafiori
Despite being a left-back, Riccardo Calafiori had shown his ability at long-range shooting while coming through the Roma academy.
He only went on to score one goal for the senior team, but his effort in the Europa League against Young Boys on 3rd December, 2020 – on his home debut for the club – was a stunner.
Firing in from outside the box just before the hour mark, Calafiori put Roma ahead for the first time in a match that would end as a come-from-behind 3-1 win.
Borja Mayoral
Borja Mayoral’s 18 months as a Roma player – which was originally meant to be a two-year spell – represented something of a rollercoaster.
The backup striker took a few weeks to get going, before breaking his Roma duck on 5th November, 2020 with a brace against CFR Cluj in the Europa League group stage. The Spaniard’s first Serie A goal would come later that month.
It was in Europe that he made himself most useful, though, finishing as the joint top scorer in the Europa League with seven goals in total among his 17 in all competitions. He failed to progress the following season, though, and was sent back to Spain ahead of schedule.
Roger Ibanez
Also opening his Roma account that day had been Roger Ibanez, who put Roma 2-0 up in a game that would finish 5-0 in their favour.
The defender hadn’t managed to score in his first half a season after joining in January 2020, but became more of a regular in his first full campaign. Subsequently, he got off the mark that November, before adding to his Europa League tally with a memorable volley against Ajax in the quarter-finals in April.
By the time the season finished, Ibanez was still yet to score in Serie A, but he changed that in September of the following season with a goal in a Rome derby.
Marash Kumbulla
When Marash Kumbulla joined Roma from Hellas Verona in 2020, it gave him the chance to play in European competition for the first time.
At the first attempt, Kumbulla scored in the Europa League when finding the net against Young Boys on 22nd October that year, in the first matchday of the group stage.
His first – and at the time of writing, only – Serie A goal for the club would follow four days later against AC Milan.
Carles Perez
Just three weeks after joining Roma on loan from Barcelona, Carles Perez got off the mark for his new club with a one-on-one finish in their first game of the 2019-20 Europa League knockout stage. His goal was the only one in a 1-0 win over Gent in the round of 32.
It would take him until July – following the resumption of Serie A after the pandemic-related delay – to score in Serie A for the first time. And while his goals could often be spectacular, they were too fleeting for him to secure a long-term stay at the club.
Although Perez became a Roma player permanently that summer, he was never a regular until he left in 2022.
Leonardo Spinazzola
A new arrival for the 2019-20 season, former Juventus left-back Leonardo Spinazzola struggled in the first six months of his Roma career – to the extent that the club considered selling him halfway through the campaign, only for it to collapse.
But one highlight from those first few months was Spinazzola’s first goal for Roma, which came in the Europa League group stage against Wolfsberger on 3rd October. His header was the opener in Austria. and his own first European goal, but it would be cancelled out in a game that ended 1-1.
Ironically, his first league goal for Roma would come in July 2020, against the side they had nearly sold him to six months earlier – Inter. By this point, Spinazzola was beginning to prove his worth and he would go on to become one of their most important players when fit.
Justin Kluivert
When Justin Kluivert scored on his first Champions League appearance for Roma, against Viktoria Plzen on 2nd October, 2018, he became the club’s youngest ever scorer in the competition at the age of 19 years and five months.
The hype around the Dutch winger soon dispersed, though. Kluivert only got one Serie A goal from 29 appearances that season, which came in December.
His form improved the following season, in which he registered seven goals in all competitions, but it wasn’t enough for the club to want to keep hold of him. Although technically still on the books, he has been out on loan at various other teams since October 2020.
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