Borussia Dortmund were the club he played for most. Bayern Munich were the club he won the most with. But Roma are the last club of Mats Hummels’ career.
When he arrived in Italy as a free agent in September, it could have already been guessed that Hummels wouldn’t spend a particularly long time at Roma. When he wasn’t even playing under Ivan Jurić, there were some assumptions his time with the club could last even shorter than expected. As it happened, Claudio Ranieri put some faith in Hummels, who subsequently stayed in January – but soon came to the realisation that this would be the last season of his career.
Will he and Roma look back on it as a worthwhile one? That may depend on what they are able to achieve together in the final few matches of the campaign. There have certainly been plenty of stories to tell from it – some highs and some lows.
The head coach in charge when Hummels arrived was Daniele De Rossi, who once said that his own actual retirement was when he left Roma even though he went on to add another chapter at Boca Juniors. Perhaps for Hummels, there could be similar reflections. Maybe his actual retirement was when he left Borussia Dortmund last year, on the back of becoming a Champions League runner-up again. This subsequent chapter with Roma was just an epilogue.
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It certainly felt like Hummels was regarded as a player who was past it by Jurić, who in his 12-game spell in charge of Roma preferred to use players like Angeliño in a back three instead of the German. Jurić often stated his decisions to leave Hummels out were down to technical reasons; disaster followed when he finally sent him on for the first time against Fiorentina and he scored an own goal in a 5-1 loss.
But during Jurić’s reign, a large section of the fanbase still sided with Hummels. Who knows what will come out in the future about that? Was Hummels under-prepared after remaining a free agent all through the summer and only signing for Roma in September? Or was Jurić wrong for overlooking him?
It appeared so when Ranieri began using Hummels in the middle of his back three. Upping his game time was regarded as one of the factors that influenced Roma’s newfound stability under the returning veteran coach. Hummels finally started a Roma game for the first time at the end of November in their Europa League draw with Tottenham Hotspur – in which he gave away a penalty that led to the opening goal but eventually scored the stoppage-time equaliser.
Although it was a performance with mixed highlights – something of a microcosm of his Roma spell – it proved to be the springboard for Hummels to start featuring more regularly under Ranieri. December was a busy month in which he built up some form and he had some good games in January too, including a rare 90-minute appearance in the derby.
But things took a turn for the worse in February when Hummels was blamed for his poor performance in Roma’s Coppa Italia defeat to AC Milan. He would be even more in the spotlight for another cup exit in March, when his misplaced pass led to a challenge that got him sent off against Athletic Club in the Europa League. Debates raged on over whether it was a red-card offence or not, but he couldn’t hide from the fact that his own lapse in judgement had led to him needing to make that tackle in the first place. To paraphrase Paolo Maldini, he needed to make a tackle because he had already made a mistake.
Would his Roma career fizzle out from there, or would he still have his say? We’re still in the process of finding out. While he could be remembered for some notable mistakes, Hummels has otherwise played well (if not spectacularly) for Roma, especially for a player in his mid-30s.
It should be remembered, though, that Roma pushed out another player in his mid-30s, one they had relied on a lot, to gamble on bringing in Hummels. Has it paid off? Was he really much better than Chris Smalling? Again, it depends which version of each player you look at.
But Roma may well have got their recruitment wrong in defence last summer, with Mario Hermoso failing to make the grade and now it being clear that Hummels was only part of the project for one season. Centre-back will have to be a priority area to reinvest in this summer. Can the club’s decision makers pick the right option for Roma to build with?
It’s never a bad thing to have some experience at the back. Hummels wasn’t quite the leader Roma hoped he would be, but he did take accountability. For an iconic player coming to Roma at the end of his career, he wasn’t an Ashley Cole. But he wasn’t the prime version of himself either. In his four-and-a-half-minute video announcing his retirement, there was only one clip of him playing for Roma (and one of the club’s fans).
Still, it’s not every year a World Cup winner chooses to play for Roma, even if in Hummels’ case it was a decade later. As his final destination, Roma are a part of his story.
Here’s what some of our Giallorossi Yorkshire members have thought of Hummels.
Tom M – Loved it when we signed him, had big hopes for him. Shame it hasn’t worked out as well as we all hoped. Even in the twilight of his career he showed glimpses of his brilliance but also unfortunately made some costly mistakes that, along with his fitness difficulties at the start of the season, more than likely brought him to this decision to hang up his boots.
Mark C – I really love the guy who is as handsome as he is talented. He took it on the chin after his daft mistake in Europe.
Harry E – Incredibly unfortunate to be sent off against Bilbao but like Tom said, the excitement died with costly mistakes despite the occasional glimpses of brilliance.
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