There is no greater Roma fan in the current women’s squad than Giada Greggi, and now there is no player in the team’s history who has represented Roma more.
The last player standing from Roma Women’s original squad, Greggi matched Annamaria Serturini as their all-time leading appearance maker in Tuesday’s Champions League win over Wolfsburg, before setting her own record outright in the defeat against Juventus on Sunday.
Raised a Roma fan – the only other example in the current squad being the younger Alice Corelli – Greggi represented Res Roma for four years (making her debut as a 14-year-old under the guidance of the late Fabio Melillo) until her childhood club launched their own women’s section by acquiring that team’s licence in 2018. Greggi was one of seven Res Roma players who were integrated into the founding AS Roma Women squad.
While midfield was not Roma’s strongest position during their inaugural season, Greggi stood out, making 25 appearances between league and cup – including one as captain, just two days after her 19th birthday. By the end of the season, she was named as Giallorossi Yorkshire’s young player of the season for Roma Women. Having brought energy to Roma’s engine room, it was now up to Greggi to show that it wasn’t just because of her youth, but that she could sustain her impact as a senior player.
Her journey would contain some obstacles, though. Summer after summer, Roma signed more senior midfielders. In 2019, in came Manuela Giugliano, Andrine Hegerberg and Andressa Alves, for example. But although she was often a substitute, Greggi still made the joint-fifth highest number of appearances among her teammates during the subsequent curtailed season.
The biggest hurdle Greggi has overcome, though, was not about competition for places, but rather a battle of her own. In October 2020, she suffered an ACL injury. Yet rarely has a Roma player – male or female – bounced back from such a setback as emphatically as their pocket dynamo.
By the end of the season, Greggi was back to help Roma Women win their first trophy, the Coppa Italia, coming on as a substitute in the final. It was a fitting end to the Betty Bavagnoli era, but Greggi was set to grow to greater levels with her next coach, Alessandro Spugna.
During the 2021-22 season, Greggi – this time dealing with, and seeing off, competition from new signing Thaisa Moreno – built her gametime back up as Roma secured Champions League qualification for the first time. On these pages, she was assigned her second individual accolade, the most improved player of the season award. And from that point on, she has become a fundamental player.
She amassed 40 appearances in 2022-23 (enough to take her over 100 for the club, while also being chosen here as the most consistent player of the season) and 37 in 2023-24, with Roma winning the Scudetto in each season. Greggi was the player who opened the scoring on the day Roma got over the line for the first time, before the result was wrapped up by her fellow Romanista, captain Elisa Bartoli.
Indeed, after three goalless seasons in a row, Greggi’s improvement in decisive areas was a small but significant aspect of how Roma were able to topple Juventus.
There were still occasions, especially in the Champions League, when Spugna selected other, often taller midfielders than Greggi, but it was she who stood the test of time. Despite her small frame, there was just no substitute for Greggi’s all-action approach. From now on, there would rarely be any doubts about including her in the starting lineup.
Her record-breaking 157th appearance for the club on 13th October 2024 was her 117th start. 111 of her appearances have been in Serie A – again, a record-breaking tally – of which 83 have been starts. And she is currently the second-most-used player of Spugna’s reign, trailing her current captain Manuela Giugliano by five outings (115 compared to 110).
There is a chance that Giugliano herself – having recently gone past Serturini as Roma Women’s record scorer – could overtake Greggi’s overall appearance record as well, given she is just one behind. But whoever holds that honour at whichever stage of the season, they are two pivotal players for Roma’s midfield.
As of now, it is Greggi – a player who helped build Roma’s women’s team up from scratch, who has always given everything for this shirt, and who at just 24 years of age still has a long career ahead of her, under contract in the capital for at least another three years – who can say she has risen above all others to become one of her team’s most iconic representatives.
She has chants in her honour, something that still seems humbling for a player who identifies fully with the fans in the stands. Her work rate, technical ability and indomitable spirit make her an extremely popular player for the fanbase. That she has got this far is not just down to where she has come from or who she supports, but because of what kind of character she is.
Leave a Reply