They came, they saw, they conquered – but not for very long. Here are the 11 players with the most goals for Roma without ever making 50 appearances for the club.
Many strikers have had a short-term impact for Roma, whether that’s within the space of a few seasons or maybe just one.
Here are the players with 11 goals or more from 49 appearances or fewer for Roma.
To clarify, this is solely about players who never reached 50 appearances for Roma, and not about who scored the most goals within their first 50 apps. That sounds like an idea for another day.
Without further ado, Giallorossi Yorkshire presents the top 10 in this category (which is actually a top 11 due to a four-way tie for eighth place).
Romelu Lukaku – 21 in 47
As soon as Roma took Romelu Lukaku on loan from Chelsea for the 2023-24 season, they knew it would likely be just a one-year association due to the striker’s high price tag for a permanent transfer.
All they could hope for was that Lukaku would contribute a useful amount of goals for as long as they had him – and despite some blips, he achieved that. In fact, he scored more goals (21) than fellow centre-forwards Tammy Abraham and Andrea Belotti had combined the season before for Roma.
By the end of his spell with Roma, there was little change to the original sense that it would be extremely unlikely for the club to keep Lukaku, but he was their top scorer for his sole season with the club.
As for the individual perspective, Lukaku outscored his tallies from the previous two seasons with Chelsea and then Inter.
Dante Di Benedetti – 19 in 39
Before Lukaku, the leader of the pack for this particular statistic for almost 90 years was Dante Di Benedetti, who played for Roma in the 1930s after graduating their academy.
Di Benedetti earned his senior debut in February 1936 and marked the occasion with a goal in a 2-1 win. By the end of the season, he had the best goals-to-games ratio among his teammates in the 1935-36 Serie A, with seven from 13. In fact, despite the short timeframe in which he achieved it, Di Benedetti outscored all his teammates in the league that term.
The following season, the Rome-born striker was Roma’s top scorer across all competitions with 12 from 26. His tally ended there, though, as he left for Fiorentina that summer.
Di Benedetti subsequently suffered relegation, but helped Fiorentina secure an instant return to Serie A and later represented clubs like Pisa, Bari and Napoli.
Lorenzo Bettini – 18 in 40
When Roma suffered the only relegation in their history, one of their signings ahead of the Serie B campaign was Lorenzo Bettini, who had scored 22 goals in the second tier the season before for Brescia.
Bettini wasn’t quite as prolific for Roma, scoring nine goals from 25 appearances in his inaugural season before being sent on loan to Palermo for a first taste of Serie A action.
Upon his reintegration in 1953, Bettini stuck around for one more season at Roma, in which he scored nine goals from 15 appearances.
His next club was Udinese, but he later became a rare example of someone who has played for Lazio as well as Roma.
Giuliano Taccola – 17 in 45
The tragedy of Giuliano Taccola remains one of the most heartbreaking things to happen in Roma’s history – indeed, probably the most.
Taccola was a talented prospect when Roma signed him from Genoa in 1967 at the age of 23. He scored eight minutes into his Serie A debut against Inter and was the club’s top scorer in his debut campaign with 14 goals.
His second season, now under the guidance of Helenio Herrera, was marred by his tragic death in March when he was still only 24, officially put down to heart failure.
Before his untimely death, Taccola had scored a further seven goals for Roma, which still made him their top Serie A scorer that season, even though he never got to complete it.
Gunnar Nordahl – 16 in 34
Although more famous for his prolific spell with AC Milan, where he was part of a famous attacking trident that also included future Roma manager Nils Liedholm, Gunnar Nordahl ended his time in Italy with Roma.
He was 34 years old when Roma signed him from Milan in 1956, but only Dino Da Costa outscored him in the season that followed.
Nevertheless, Nordahl wound down from there and only scored three times in 1957-58, which he ended as player-manager. His third and final season was spent exclusively on the touchline before he went back to his native Sweden.
Jurgen Schutz – 13 in 30
After winning the Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund in 1963, Jurgen Schutz came to Roma. Things looked bright when he scored on his home debut in Serie A.
The midfielder ended the season with 11 goals from 23 appearances, but was loaned to Messina and Torino over the next couple of years.
Upon his return in 1967, Schutz scored twice from seven further appearances before being sold to Brescia.
Stefano Ferrari – 13 in 47
As Serie A resumed post-war in 1946, Roma incorporated Stefano Ferrari from Brescia, finally giving him his chance in the top flight after never getting to debut for Milan or Fiorentina.
Ferrari actually didn’t score for Roma until mid-December (cruelly denying the possibility of a pun about a fast start) but had seven goals to his name by the end of the season.
Still overshadowed by Amedeo Amadei, Ferrari scored six goals the season after before dropping down to Serie B again with Seregno.
Aleksandar Arangelovic – 11 in 20
Roma had a narrow escape from relegation in 1949-50 (and would suffer the fate a year later) but it could have been worse without Aleksandar Arangelovic.
Brought in from Padova, Arangelovic was Roma’s top scorer of the season with 11 goals from 20 games.
He left for Novara by the end of it, though, and this time fate wasn’t as kind to the club.
Sandro Tovalieri – 11 in 33
Sandro Tovalieri emerged from Roma’s academy when the club were at the peak of their powers in the early 1980s, so had to cut his teeth on loan at Pescara and Arezzo first.
His chance with Roma came in the 1985-86 season under Sven-Goran Eriksson, who saw the striker score just three goals in the league, but eight in the Coppa Italia, which Roma won on aggregate against Sampdoria.
Tovalieri’s goal in the first leg would be his last before he left for Avellino. In later years, the player nicknamed the ‘Cobra’ returned to Roma to work as a youth coach.
Giancarlo Bacci – 11 in 42
Giancarlo Bacci played for Roma in the two seasons directly before they went down to Serie B. He scored six goals in 1949-50 and and five in 1950-51 after making 21 appearances in each campaign.
He remained in Serie A by joining Udinese on loan before making a permanent transfer to Bologna.
Amarildo – 11 in 42
A World Cup winner with Brazil in 1962, where he rotated with a certain Pele, Amarildo joined Roma eight years later from Fiorentina.
He was in his thirties at the time, but became Roma’s joint top scorer of 1970-71 with eight goals.
Amarildo added another three the following season before going back to Brazil with Vasco da Gama.
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