Roma have dramatically retained the services of Paulo Dybala, their most inspirational player over the past two seasons, after the Argentine attacker’s proposed move to Al-Qadsiah in the Saudi Pro League was rejected.
The Giallorossi faithful were in dreamland when Dybala joined Roma on a free transfer in 2022 following his eye-catching spells in Serie A with Palermo and Juventus – and now they are again after his unexpected decision to stay.
After a spectacular welcome in the Italian capital two years ago, Dybala hit the ground running on the pitch. Across his debut season with Roma, Dybala was their top scorer with 18 goals from 38 games. He was a key player in Jose Mourinho’s side’s run to the Europa League final, famously scoring the goal that took the quarter-final against Feyenoord to extra time and eventually being visibly emotional to finish as a runner-up in the competition, rather than a winner. Nevertheless, Dybala was named as the Giallorossi Yorkshire player of the season for Roma in 2022-23.
During his second season, Dybala played 39 games, scoring 16 goals – including Roma’s first hat-trick in Serie A for over three years. Although the public perception was that this season was slightly more affected by injuries for La Joya – regardless of the fact his appearance tally was actually higher than the previous campaign – in Serie A, he was their joint-leading scorer on 13 with Romelu Lukaku.
Dybala came on as a substitute in Roma’s first game of the 2024-25 season to earn his 78th appearance for the club. Build-up to that game was dominated by discussions over Dybala’s future after Al-Qadsiah charmed him with a contract offer believed to be worth up to €75m over three seasons. On the following Wednesday, news emerged that Dybala had instructed Roma to negotiate with his Saudi suitors.
THE DYBALA ARCHIVES
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However, in a spectacular twist on Thursday, the move to Saudi Arabia has now been rejected. Al-Qadsiah’s bid, believed to be just €3m, was not sufficient for Roma, and Dybala himself has reconsidered his stance thanks to the mutual love between himself and his current club’s fans.
In a message on Instagram, accompanied by a video of some of his highlights from his time at the club so far, Dybala said: “See you on Sunday” to the Roma fans.
Dybala remains under contract until the end of the season, but his deal will be extended should he reach a certain number of appearances which may not be too far on the horizon.
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