Roma haven’t won a league title in the past 25 years, but plenty of players to pass through their ranks have.
Frustratingly, some of those players are products of the club’s own academy.
These are the former Roma academy players to have won one of Europe’s top five leagues (in England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France) since the Giallorossi’s own last Scudetto 25 years ago.
Marco Amelia (Serie A 2010-11)
Roma’s third choice goalkeeper when they won the Scudetto in 2000-01, Amelia never actually played a competitive game for his local team. But he embarked on a respectable career, winning the World Cup with Italy in 2006 (again without playing) and representing six different clubs in Serie A. The last of those was AC Milan, with whom he won the Scudetto 10 years after Roma last did. This time, Amelia played four times in the league.
Simone Pepe (Serie A 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15)
Pepe graduated the Roma academy in 2001, but failed to make his senior debut for the club. The winger eventually established himself in Serie A with Cagliari, before spending three years with Udinese and earning a move to Juventus in 2010. After finishing seventh in his debut season in Turin, Pepe was part of the first four of Juve’s nine Scudetti in a row, although he only played regularly in 2011-12 before a range of injuries.
Alessio Romagnoli (Serie A 2021-22)
After making 14 appearances for Roma and spending a season on loan at Sampdoria, Romagnoli escaped to AC Milan in 2015. He captained them to the Scudetto in his seventh and final season there – only playing in half of their league games – before linking up with Lazio, having supported Roma’s arch-rivals all along.
Alessandro Florenzi (Serie A 2021-22)
Former Roma captain Florenzi was also part of the Milan squad that won the Scudetto in 2021-22, during his fourth and final loan spell away from his boyhood club. Playing 24 times on course to the Scudetto, having been a runner up three times with Roma, Florenzi made his move permanent and saw out his career with the Rossoneri.
Matteo Politano (Serie A 2022-23, 2024-25)
Although he never made his senior debut for Roma, Politano had a chance to return to the club in January 2020 when Inter were ready to swap him with Leonardo Spinazzola. The deal fell through, paving the way for the winger to join Napoli instead. He remains there to this day and has won a pair of Scudetti in the process, scoring three goals each time.
Davide Frattesi (Serie A 2023-24, 2025-26)
Frattesi also failed to debut at senior level for Roma before making a name for himself elsewhere and working his way up to being part of a Scudetto contender’s squad. Inter signed him from Sassuolo in 2023 and he won the league by the end of his initial loan spell, scoring six goals along the way. Frattesi has helped Inter reclaim the title from Napoli this season as well, although this time with a less influential role.
Renato Marin (Ligue 1 2025-26)
After rejecting a contract offer to continue at Roma, Brazil-born goalkeeper Marin made the move to PSG as a free agent in 2025. Marin had spent five years developing at Roma after arriving from São Paulo, but never made it past third choice. So far, he’s largely occupied the same role in Paris, but did play a couple of times on course to them winning Ligue 1 during his debut season.
Riccardo Calafiori (Premier League 2025-26)
Only the third ex-Roma played to win the Premier League after Mohamed Salah and Alisson Becker, Calafiori’s rise since leaving his boyhood club has been breathtaking. Injury threatened to end his career before it had even begun while in the Roma academy, but he eventually made 18 appearances for the first team. When he was sold to Basel in 2022, though, Roma might not have foreseen his future development into a €40m player that Arsenal would buy from Bologna. In his second season with Arsenal, the defender helped end their long wait for a league title.
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