After scoring his 100th goal for Roma, Edin Dzeko has joined an illustrious group of club legends to pass the landmark.
Dzeko’s goal against Sassuolo was a bittersweet moment, as it covered over an otherwise uninspiring display amid one of Roma’s worst performances under Paulo Fonseca. But by nodding home Lorenzo Pellegrini’s cross, Dzeko became only the seventh player to ever bring up a century of goals for Roma.
And with two-and-a-half years remaining on his contract, Dzeko has every chance of rising further up the rankings – with Vincenzo Montella (102), Pedro Manfredini (104) and Rodolfo Volk (106) all within touching distance by the end of this season.
The speed at which Dzeko, who is now in his fifth season with the club, has reached his century is even more impressive considering his slow start to life in Rome. His poor form then created impressions that have lasted all too long for some, but ever since, he has mostly been lethal.
His second season was one to remember, as he matched the record for the most goals scored by a single player in one Roma season with a massive 39. He was becoming a focal point, and the confidence the supporters had in him grew by the minute.
Beyond that, he developed a reputation for turning up in the big games, being a crucial figurehead in Roma’s remarkable run to the Champions League semi-finals in 2017-18. His volley against Chelsea during the group stages that year will undoubtedly go down as not just one of his best ever goals, but also one of Roma’s.
The season after bore more of a resemblance to his first campaign than the other two that had gone before, but he had shown enough to earn a contract extension – and in the first half of the first season of his new deal, he has began getting among the goals more regularly again.
Just how high up he can rise up the Roma scoring rankings depends much on how his body copes over the next couple of years, but while he has no chance of catching all-time leading scorer Francesco Totti, he can take comfort in the fact that he has reached 100 goals in exactly the same number of games as the man directly behind Totti on that list, Roberto Pruzzo.
Roma’s talisman of the glory days in the 1980s, Pruzzo was the club’s all-time leading scorer until Totti came along. A Scudetto winner and European finalist with Roma, Pruzzo was the out-and-out goalscorer that spearheaded Roma under the legendary Nils Liedholm.
It took both Dzeko and Pruzzo 206 games to reach their century. That was quicker than Totti, who had to wait until his 319th appearance to get goal number 100.
Dzeko has also reached 100 goals faster than Amedeo Amadei and Vincenzo Montella, the man he will be looking to pass next in the scoring charts.
The players to have reached their ton quicker than Dzeko came from the earlier days of the club’s history. Pedro Manfredini, the talisman of the 1960s, took just 147 games to get 100 Roma goals. Alongside Dzeko, he is the only foreigner to score a century for the club.
But he was beaten in the race to get 100 goals quickest by the original star striker for Roma – Rodolfo Volk. No-one reached their century quicker than the Fiume-born hitman, who was the first ever goalscorer in the Derby Della Capitale and first Roma player to score at Campo Testaccio, among other honours.
Volk finished his Roma career with 106 goals in 160 games, but that tally could have been even greater. The Coppa Italia did not run during Volk’s time with the club, meaning if it had, he would likely have scored many more goals.
Only Enrique Guaita, the man who succeeded him as Roma’s main frontman, has a better goals to games ratio than Volk, considering only players to make more than 60 appearances for the club.
Dzeko will now be hoping to kick on and catch up with some of the other players within his cross-hairs. But, turning 34 years old next month, is it a race against time for the Bosnian?
The former Manchester City striker is the oldest player to reach 100 goals for Roma, with Montella the only other player to wait until their thirties to pass the milestone.
Amadei was the youngest centurion, being just 26 years and six months old when he reached 100. Still the youngest scorer in Roma’s history having opened his account at the age of 15 – a record likely to never be surpassed – the wartime era striker will always represent youthful promise for the club.
Totti was also 26 when he passed his century, although he was two months older than Amadei had been. As the club’s youngest ever captain, Totti also will be remembered for the impact he had from an early age. Indeed, the fact that he had already amassed more than 300 games for the club by that time shows just how much of an impression he had made in his formative years.
The third and final player to be 26 at the time of their 100th goal was the efficient Volk, who was six days away from his 27th birthday when he netted against Torino in a 1-1 draw in 1933.
Manfredini was within his prime when he passed his century at 28 years and eight months old, while Pruzzo was nearing the end of his time at the top when he scored his 100th goal 24 days after his 29th birthday.
Montella may have only scraped his century, which took until the age of 32 years and five months to achieve, but even so, he did so younger than Dzeko, who is 33 years and 11 months old.
It is a shame that Dzeko was on the losing side when he headed home his 100th goal, but in a way, it symbolises his time at the club. Apart from in his record-breaking second season, he has always divided opinion. Perhaps it was meant to be that his landmark achievement would not be able to be celebrated in the manner it deserved.
But in the years that follow, few will remember the circumstances in which Dzeko got his 100th goal – or if they do, will not deem them significant. Totti was also on the losing side when he scored his 100th in the first leg of the Coppa Italia final loss to AC Milan – a game in which Roma also conceded four goals.
Only Pruzzo, Amadei and Montella marked their 100th goals with a win, with the former and latter even scoring braces to double up the positivity. But Manfredini and Volk had to settle for draws on their special days – even if Manfredini’s was a far from boring 4-4 tie with Catania.
While the result may be significant in Roma’s season, it will not be in remembering Dzeko’s legacy. The striker has worked to build up his reputation, and it is a travesty that he has not won a trophy along the way. But again, perhaps it emphasises his achievement. To consistently score while the team has not been as successful highlights the level at which Dzeko plays.
Thus, when the disappointment of defeat wears away, Dzeko should be celebrated by all. To score 100 goals for a single club is no mean feat, and is an achievement that is growing ever rarer in the modern era. Despite some initial doubts, Dzeko came, saw and conquered Rome. And should things continue on the right track, he still has a lot to give to the club he has adopted as his own.
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