Roma’s Primavera side have only had a few goes at playing in the UEFA Youth League since it was introduced in 2013.
The competition sees the youth sides of all the teams involved in the senior Champions League take each other on, plus some domestic champions at the relevant age level whose senior sides didn’t make it into the Champions League.
Roma first took part in the Youth League in 2014-15, kicking off a run of five consecutive seasons of involvement. However, after being knocked out on penalties by Midtjylland in February 2019, the first team’s long absence from the Champions League and the Primavera’s failure to win a league title meant Roma wouldn’t return to the Youth League until 2026.
Thus, there haven’t been many chances for Roma’s Primavera side to visit English academy sides. Here’s what happened the three times they have.
2014-15: Manchester City
After beating CSKA Moscow 3-1 in their first Youth League game in 2014, Roma travelled to Hyde to face Manchester City in their second group game.
Roma took the lead within the first 10 minutes of the second half via Francesco Di Mariano, but City completed a comeback to win 2-1 with goals by Olivier Ntcham and Thierry Ambrose.
Lorenzo Pellegrini captained Roma, while their future left-back Angeliño also featured for City among other names that would become reasonably familiar in later years, like Tosin Adarabioyo.
Later that night, Francesco Totti would score his first goal on English soil to become the Champions League’s then-oldest ever goalscorer in a 1-1 draw between Roma’s and City’s first teams.
The Primavera suffered a 4-0 defeat in the return fixture, but qualified for the knockout phase as group runners-up. They went on to beat Ajax on penalties in the round of 16 before reuniting with City in the quarter-finals and winning 2-1 in Latina thanks to a late Pellegrini strike from distance.
It was English opposition again for Roma in the semi-finals, where they met Chelsea on neutral ground in Nyon, Switzerland. Eventual tournament champions Chelsea won 4-0, with the last goal coming from a certain Tammy Abraham.
A handful of other Chelsea players from that team went on to play in Serie A for other clubs: Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Ola Aina, Jeremie Boga and substitute Fikayo Tomori.
2017-18: Chelsea
The 2017-18 group stage games between Roma and Chelsea in the Champions League were both spectacles: a 3-3 draw at Stamford Bridge – including Edin Džeko’s wonder volley – was followed by a 3-0 rout at the Olimpico.
On the day of the Stamford Bridge game, the Primavera crossed paths with Chelsea again. This time, it was a more positive outcome, as they claimed a 2-0 win at Cobham.
Andrea Marcucci and Lorenzo Valeau were the scorers – two players who never made a senior debut for Roma and had to carve out careers in the lower leagues.
Some vaguely more familiar names from the game included Mirko Antonucci, Žan Celar and Alessio Riccardi, while Chelsea had Reece James, future Leeds captain Ethan Ampadu and now-Como defender Trevoh Chalobah turning out for them, with future Napoli midfielder Billy Gilmour coming off the bench and future Torino and Empoli man Tino Anjorin staying on it.
Roma lost the home fixture against Chelsea 2-1, with Celar scoring the consolation. Unlike the senior side, who went on to reach the Champions League semi-finals, the Primavera failed to make it out of a tricky group.
2026-27: Manchester United
Roma’s long-awaited return to the Champions League also meant a long-awaited return to the Youth League – a stage that seven years’ worth of Primavera products hadn’t had the chance to grace.
After a 4-2 win over Fenerbahçe, a 1-0 loss to Real Madrid and a 5-0 win over Slovan Bratislava, Roma made their way to the Leigh Sports Village to take on Manchester United in their fourth match of the league phase.
There were some big names in the United squad: two Fletchers and a Rooney. Midfielders Jack and Tyler Fletcher, sons of Darren, started, while Kai Rooney, son of Wayne, came off the bench late on.
Roma fell behind in the first half after a goal by Tynan Thompson, but regained some momentum towards the end and equalised from the penalty spot. The scorer was Antonio Arena, a 17-year-old striker who had already debuted and scored for the first team 10 months before.
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