Candela, Nainggolan, Ghiggia… A lineup of players who were the first from their country to play for Roma

Players from more than 50 different countries have played for Roma across the years, with several international greats becoming club legends.

The current squad is comprised of more than a dozen different nationalities – with some being the first from their homeland to don the Giallorossi jersey.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan has impressed as the first Armenian to play for the club, while Amadou Diawara has done Guinea proud with his performances in midfield.

But who were the best players to become the first from their nations to play for Roma? Here’s a lineup, in a 4-2-3-1 formation of mixed quality, of players who fit that criteria.

Goalkeeper: Maarten Stekelenburg

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Roma have had several Dutch players in recent years, including Kevin Strootman and Justin Kluivert. But no player from the Netherlands actually represented Roma until the 2010s, when Maarten Stekelenburg joined from Ajax, who had been his only club to that date.

The current Everton back-up keeper spent the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons with Roma, but did not quite do enough to warrant a longer stay. He was subsequently sold to Fulham.

Right-back: Ivan Piris

Ivan Piris has spent most of his career in South America, but Roma first brought the right-back to Europe in 2012, for a loan spell from Deportivo Maldonado. In doing so, Piris became the first man from Paraguay to play for the Giallorossi.

He was not bought permanently at the end of his loan, and went on to join Sporting CP in Portugal, Udinese in Italy, and Monterrey and Leon in Mexico, before returning to South America in 2018.

Centre-back: Samuel Kuffour

Ghana international Samuel Kuffour actually spent time in Italy as a youth player with Torino before turning professional, but prior to signing for Roma in 2005, he had only played in Germany for Bayern Munich and FC Nurnberg.

While Kuffour wasn’t sold until 2008, he only spent one season in Roma’s first team, making just over 30 appearances in all competitions.

Centre-back: Hector Moreno

Don’t worry, this team does get more memorable, eventually. There was much intrigue around the signing of Hector Moreno from PSV in 2017, but his spell with the club bore little to remember.

Pursued for a long-time by then-incoming sporting director Monchi, Mexico international Moreno was believed to be capable of filling in at centre-back or left-back, but left after just six months. He recently admitted that when he came to Roma, he realised he “didn’t know how to defend”.

Left-back: Vincent Candela

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Okay, now we’re talking. For a country that borders Italy, it is perhaps surprising that it took until the 1990s for a Frenchman to play for Roma. Unlike the players that have preceded him on this list, Candela was an overwhelming success in the Italian capital.

Joining from Guingamp in 1997, the full-back was a regular when Roma won Serie A in 2001, and also scored in the club’s victory in the Supercoppa Italiana in the same year. In total, Candela made nearly 300 appearances for the Lupi, before leaving in 2005 – to Bolton, of all places.

By that time, three other French players had followed him to Rome, with a few more to follow in the years to come. During his eight-year stay with the club, Candela also lined up alongside compatriots Jonathan Zebina (with whom he won the Scudetto), Olivier Dacourt and Philippe Mexes.

Central midfield: David Pizarro

Roma have had a long history of South American players – with their first foreign player, Arturo Chini Luduena, hailing from Argentina, and no other foreign nationality joining until Albania’s Naim Krieziu in 1939 – but nobody from Chile represented the club until the 21st Century.

The man to break the mould was David Pizarro, who remains the only Chilean to have played for the club. The midfielder joined from Inter Milan in 2006, and spent six successful years in the capital, helping the club to win their three most trophies.

After a loan at Manchester City in 2012, Pizarro stayed in Italy to play for Fiorentina, before returning to his home country. He retired in 2018.

Central midfield: Miralem Pjanic

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Crossing paths briefly with Pizarro at Roma was his midfield partner in this imagined lineup, Miralem Pjanic. The Giallorossi have had just two Bosnian players in their history (with the nation only having gained independence in the 1990s), but both have been a success.

It was Pjanic who came before current captain Edin Dzeko, with the midfielder signing from Lyon in 2011. Over five seasons with Roma, Pjanic largely impressed as a midfield creator, before controversially moving to rivals Juventus in 2016.

Right wing: Alcides Ghiggia

The oldest name in this list, Ghiggia made Uruguay the second non-European country to have a Roma player when he joined the club in 1953 – three years after scoring in the World Cup Final. 26 when he arrived in Europe for the first time, to much anticipation, the winger brought his experience to Roma and stayed for a successful eight-year period.

A member of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup winning squad in 1961, just before his departure, Ghiggia left as a legend. He was one of the third wave of inductees into the Roma Hall of Fame in 2014, one year before he passed away.

Attacking midfield: Radja Nainggolan

A player much more recent in the mind, and one who needs no introductions, Radja Nainggolan may be Belgian, but has spent his entire career in Italy. And he became an adopted Roman during his four-and-a-half years with the Giallorossi, epitomising the dedication that is required to succeed at the Stadio Olimpico.

In each of his full seasons with Roma, he was named in the Serie A team of the year – with the 2016-17 campaign being his personal highlight.

Left winger: Hidetoshi Nakata

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Another attacking midfielder who spent a relatively short time at Roma but became fondly remembered was Hidetoshi Nakata. The Lupi snapped him up from Perugia in January 2000, and 18 months later, he was a Serie A winner with the club.

Nakata was not only the first Japanese player to represent Roma, but also the first from his entire continent, Asia. To this day, he remains the only Asian to have worn the red and yellow colours, and even though he did so in only 40 matches, Nakata still made a big enough contribution to earn a place in the history books.

Striker: Dino Da Costa

Roma’s association with South American players was firmly fixated towards Argentina until the arrival of Ghiggia, and two years later, Dino Da Costa became the first Brazilian in the club’s history.

Like Ghiggia, he won the Fairs Cup in 1961 before leaving in the same year. By that time, though, Da Costa had become a naturalised Italian player, earning his sole cap for the Azzurri in 1958.

Da Costa paved the way for a plethora of Brazilians to join Roma in future years, with Paulo Roberto Falcao, Rodrigo Taddei and Cafu being among the most memorable.

Substitutes:

Unfortunately, several great players narrowly missed out on the cut – which is a particular shame given that some of the earlier players on the list were far from success stories at Roma. With the attacking positions full of choice, however, the best of the rest included: Zbigniew Boniek (Poland), Joaquin Peiro (Spain) and Mirko Vucinic (Montenegro).