Deadline day can incur a flurry of transfer activity and Roma have been no strangers to leaving it late to get deals done over the years.
In February 2025, for example, Roma reinforced their squad with three new signings on deadline day, in the shape of Lucas Gourna-Douath, Victor Nelsson and Anass Salah-Eddine. But what about in summer transfer windows gone by?
While transfers have historically been organised in summer and winter sessions, the concept of transfer windows was enforced by FIFA as recently as 2003.
Since then, here are the summer deadline day signings Roma have made and how they fared.
Mido (31st August 2004)
Mido was Roma’s last signing of summer 2004, a timeframe in which they were preparing for a new era after the departure of Fabio Capello as head coach. Capello’s replacement, Cesare Prandelli, stood down before Mido – or any other player – was able to play for the club in the new season.
A turbulent season followed and the Egyptian striker failed to get off the mark as a goalscorer before leaving for Tottenham Hotspur.
Gilberto Martínez (31st August 2006)
Martínez had four years of experience in Italian football when he joined Roma in 2006, but the most recent of those seasons was spent in Serie B with Brescia.
Roma brought the Costa Rica international in on loan, but were unable to give him a single appearance due to the aftermath of an injury he had suffered at the World Cup.
Bogdan Lobonț (31st August 2009)
After a previous spell in Italy with Fiorentina, Roma took Lobonț on board at the end of the 2009 summer transfer window, a day before the resignation of Luciano Spalletti as head coach. The Romanian goalkeeper only played three times in his debut season under Claudio Ranieri, but was retained on a permanent basis.
In fact, Lobonț went on to serve Roma for another eight years, largely as a reserve or third-choice goalkeeper, before retiring in 2018.
Marco Borriello (31st August 2010)
Although Borriello had started AC Milan’s first game of the 2010-11 season, he fell down their pecking order after the purchase of Zlatan Ibrahimović and was allowed to join Roma at the end of the summer 2010 transfer window.
The deal for the striker was a loan with an obligation to buy, although it’s fair to say his loan spell (with 17 goals from 46 games) went better than his time as a permanent Roma player (with 1 goal from 19 games and three loan spells away).
Fabio Borini (31st August 2011)
Deadline day of 2011 was Roma’s busiest ever, with the construction of the squad for the new era under Luis Enrique enhanced by four final signings for the summer.
At the end of his first summer as sporting director, Walter Sabatini secured the services of Borini on loan from Parma, barely a couple of months after they signed him from Chelsea via a pre-contract agreement.
Borini scored 10 goals for Roma, who bought him outright by the end of the season but sold him to Liverpool before the next one began.
Fernando Gago (31st August 2011)
Gago’s gametime during his last season with Real Madrid was limited, but Roma hoped to rejuvenate him with a loan deal, staving off the threat of a rumoured late attempt by Palermo to beat them to an agreement with the Argentine midfielder.
Gago only scored once for Roma from 32 appearances and headed back to Spain by the end of the season to sign for Valencia instead.
Simon Kjær (31st August 2011)
After a previous spell with Palermo, Roma brought Kjær, who was still only 22, back to Italy on loan from Wolfsburg for the 2011-12 season. He was deemed to be a replacement for Philippe Mexès, not just for their striking appearances.
The deal was meant to be permanent at first, with Kjær completing his medical days before, but there was a hold-up with Wolfsburg and it became a loan with an option to buy. Roma decided against activating that option after a shaky season by the Danish defender, who was sent off in the Derby Della Capitale that October.
Kjær stabilised his form in the future and finished his career at AC Milan between 2020 and 2024.
Miralem Pjanić (31st August 2011)
Undoubtedly the best of Roma’s quartet of deadline day signings in 2011 – and arguably their best deadline day signing ever – Pjanić joined from Lyon in an €11m deal.
The midfielder gave five seasons of service to Roma, scoring 30 goals from 185 games and showing his class as a playmaker and set-piece specialist.
Sadly, he tarnished his reputation by forcibly leaving for Juventus in 2016, but looking back at his addition to Roma in the first place, Pjanić certainly provided a boost.
Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa (1st September 2014)
With injury issues for defender Leandro Castán in pre-season, Roma reinforced their backline with a loan deal to sign Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa from Newcastle United at the start of September, to which the deadline had shifted due to the end of August falling on a weekend.
Yanga-Mbiwa did become a permanent Roma player, but still only spent a season with the club, immortalised for scoring the winner against Lazio in May 2015 to secure Champions League qualification.
Emerson Palmieri (31st August 2015)
After selling José Holebas to Watford earlier in the window and removing Ashley Cole from their first-team project, Roma needed two new left-backs for the 2015-16 season. Lucas Digne had already arrived earlier in the summer, before Emerson completed the department on deadline day in a deal with Santos after his entry into Italian football on loan with Palermo.
Digne was the first-choice and Emerson the reserve at first, but after Spalletti replaced Rudi Garcia as coach, the hierarchy began to shift and Roma kept their faith in the Brazil-born defender, who became their starter in 2016-17 after Digne’s loan from PSG wasn’t made permanent.
Emerson performed well until unfortunately suffering an ACL injury on Francesco Totti’s farewell appearance on the final day of the 2016-17 season.
William Vainqueur (31st August 2015)
Roma learned on 26th August, 2015, that Kevin Strootman required further surgery on his ACL injury. They chose to react by adding to their midfield, bringing in Vainqueur in a permanent deal from Dynamo Moscow.
But the Frenchman only started four times in Serie A, acting mainly as an understudy, before being loaned out to Marseille in 2016.
Nikola Kalinić (2nd September 2019)
Roma were constructing for a new era in 2019, with Paulo Fonseca becoming head coach and Gianluca Petrachi becoming sporting director. On the final day of a summer of reconstruction, Roma sanctioned Patrik Schick’s departure to RB Leipzig, which meant they needed a new striker to compete with Edin Džeko.
Kalinić was chosen as the solution via a loan deal with Atlético Madrid, returning to Serie A after an underwhelming spell with AC Milan. He took his time to get going as Roma’s backup striker too, but had a minor scoring wave towards the end of his loan and left the club with 5 goals from 15 league games to his name.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan (2nd September 2019)
There had barely been a whisper about Roma being in contention for Mkhitaryan’s signature when a loan deal was agreed with Arsenal near the end of the 2019 summer window.
While the attacking midfielder had been hot and cold in the Premier League, there was excitement about what Roma were adding and he was an instant hit for the Giallorossi, scoring on his debut against Sassuolo and later making his stay permanent.
In his third and final season before leaving for Inter, Mkhitaryan remodelled himself as a central midfielder and contributed to Roma’s Europa Conference League success, although on an individual level his best form had been in his first two seasons further up the field.
Chris Smalling (5th October 2020)
Smalling was Roma’s best player while on loan from Manchester United in the 2019-20 season, but efforts to keep him on a permanent basis went down to the wire – even with the summer deadline extended until October after the pandemic. At one stage, there were fears Smalling’s registration hadn’t gone through in time.
In part because he was training separately from United all summer, Smalling suffered an injury-riddled first season as a permanent Roma player, but bounced back to inspire their Conference League victory in the next.
Manu Koné (30th August 2024)
The ideal profile to improve Roma’s midfield, Koné was signed on a shrewd loan with an obligation to buy for just €18m at the end of the summer 2024 transfer window, the only overseen by his compatriot Florent Ghisolfi as technical director.
Carrying himself with confidence, Koné’s ball-retention skills stood out amid a turbulent first half of his debut season and he continued to shine as Roma’s form improved to be among the best in the league under Ranieri in the second half of the campaign.
Roma faced interest in Koné less than a full year after his arrival, with Inter trying to sign him in August 2025, but his value to the club made that a no-go.
Alexis Saelemaekers (30th August 2024)
Roma were hoping to sign Saelemaekers on a permanent basis in a swap deal with Tammy Abraham, but time constraints forced the two clubs to quickly settle on a swap of loans.
It was Roma who came to regret the lack of permanent deal more; whereas Abraham wasn’t retained by either club, Saelemaekers proved to be a useful versatility player for Roma and earned a reintegration by Milan.
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