28th May, 2017. The day Roma fans never expected to come. Francesco Totti’s final appearance for the club.
It was to be a dramatic ending too, with Champions League qualification on the line. A hero would need to rise up. But rather than his captain with whom his surname rhymes, the chosen one would be Diego Perotti.
Totti himself later declared that had Roma received a penalty, he would have blasted the ball into the crowd as a memento from his farewell. But something significant was at stake for the club – and, as they have learned in the years that have followed, something that should not be taken for granted. Champions League involvement was on the line. Sentiment aside, there was a crucial result to be achieved.
The player to secure it, with a smash-and-grab finish that transcended time, was Perotti, who fired home against his former club Genoa to spark wild celebrations. It became one of the highlights of his Roma career.
Seven years since ensuring Totti’s farewell would contain multiple reasons for celebration, Perotti has also reached the end of his career. But in his case, there was to be no explosive ending. The Argentine’s career concluded after two years as a free agent following a goalless spell with Salernitana. It wasn’t befitting of a player who had dazzled over 138 appearances for Roma.
When Perotti arrived in February 2016, Roma were in need of a refresh. Luciano Spalletti had returned as head coach to replace Rudi Garcia, whose side had stagnated significantly. To boost Spalletti’s chances of success, his squad was equipped with two new attackers: Stephan El Shaarawy and Perotti.
While El Shaarawy was the one who made the more exciting initial impact, by virtue of scoring a scorpion-flick goal on his debut, Perotti proved equally as transformative and rejuvenating to Roma. Whether starting as a left winger or as a false nine, he showed his class. Making the loan deal via which they had acquired him permanent at the end of the season was a straightforward decision.
Perotti’s first season as a permanent Roma player was the most prolific of his career. That half-volley against Genoa was the 10th goal of his season. Masterful from the penalty spot, with steely focus emanating from his cold stare, he also popped up with a useful open-play goal or two. Who can forget, for example, his rabona goal against Viktoria Plzen in the 2016-17 Europa League (even if he did admit it was meant to be a cross)?
🐺 Rewind to Diego Perotti for Roma 😳@ASRomaEN || #TBT || #UEL pic.twitter.com/S0232f5wn9
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) November 2, 2023
A couple of years after ensuring Totti’s farewell wasn’t doubly heartbreaking, Perotti also scored on the day of Daniele De Rossi’s last appearance for Roma, again clutching a win right at the death. For those two goals alone, Perotti is embedded by association into Roma history. But while he was realistically not in the same echelon as the club’s top two appearance makers of all time, this fairly underrated talent deserved to be held in high esteem not just as a side character, but as someone with his own influential story to tell.
It is easy to romanticise Perotti’s spell with Roma given that, in the years since his departure, they haven’t really had a player like him. Henrikh Mkhitaryan initially did a similar job as a number-10-style left winger, but he eventually became a midfielder as the team transitioned to one without genuine wide players – something they are still trying to build back up.
Furthermore, the prospect of two players with the abilities of Perotti and El Shaarawy vying for one spot in the team during their prime years seems like a luxury in comparison to the lack of depth sometimes seen in the squad since.
But Perotti would have been worthy of fond memories no matter how Roma evolved after him. This was a technically gifted player capable of causing danger to full-backs whether cutting inside onto his stronger right foot or dribbling to the touchline on his so-called weaker left side. The Argentine had an element of surprise and the skill to make that unpredictability effective.
In addition to his 31 goals for Roma, Perotti also provided 27 assists. Although Sevilla were the club he made the most appearances for, Roma were the club he rewarded with the most goal contributions – comfortably. For perspective, he scored 27 goals for all his other clubs combined. Roma enjoyed some of his most consistent and productive form, even helping to briefly put him back in the international picture for an Argentina side stacked with other talented creators.
Having joined Roma at the age of 27, Perotti spent the peak of his career in the capital. Once again, in more recent times, the club have sometimes been guilty of leaning too far towards signing unproven young talents, or declining older ones. Perotti was a perfect example of shrewd and timely acquisition of a player capable of taking the next leap in his Serie A career and making the most of the platform once he received it.
Perotti’s Roma spell ultimately fizzled out because of physical problems, in a microcosm of what happened at the end of his career as a whole. But now, it’s time to remember him at his best, as he deserves.
He was the quintessential kind of player who wasn’t world class, but performed regularly at an above-average level for Roma and captured the hearts and imaginations of their supporters in the process.
He deserved for his career to have as dramatic an ending as what he enabled for Totti and De Rossi. And while that wasn’t the case, he will not forget Roma, and nor will Roma forget him.
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