The five times a Roma player has scored a hat-trick in the opening game

Donyell Malen started where he left off as the 2026-27 Serie A season began, scoring a hat-trick in Roma’s opener against Fiorentina.

Roma won 4-0 after Malen’s hat-trick set them on their way to victory – but has a Roma player ever scored a hat-trick on the opening day before?

The answer is yes, but not since 1960. In fact, only three players – one of them twice – have scored an opening-day hat-trick in Serie A for Roma before Malen.

Danilo Michelini (1937)

The first player to score an opening-day hat-trick for Roma was Danilo Michelini, who happened to be making his debut for the club that day in September 1937.

Coincidentally, it was also in a 4-0 win over Fiorentina.

At 20 years old, Michelini was among the most promising strikers in Serie A. He went on to finish his debut Roma season with 18 goals.

Amedeo Amadei (1941)

Roma’s youngest ever goalscorer, being just 15 when he opened his account in 1937, Amadei achieved his genuine breakthrough in the 1940-41 season by scoring 24 goals.

And he set out on the follow-up season strongly, taking Roma from 2-1 up against Napoli to 5-1 up with a goal towards the end of the first half and two towards the end of the second half.

He scored another hat-trick in the fifth-from-last game of the season for good measure.

By the end of the season, Roma were Serie A champions for the first time in their history, with 18-goal Amadei being one of the biggest protagonists.

Amedeo Amadei (1946)

Five years later, Amadei became the only man to score a second hat-trick on the opening day for Roma.

As Italian football emerged from the post-war era and Serie A resumed in 1946-47, Amadei got up and running with a second-half hat-trick against Sampdoria, proving decisive towards a 3-1 win.

Six goals from his next six games continued his strong start to his penultimate Roma season.

Pedro Manfredini (1960)

After making an impact with 16 goals in his first season in Italian football with Roma, Argentine striker Manfredini notched his first hat-trick for the club in their first league game of his second season.

Earning his side a 3-0 win at Bari, Manfredini’s was the only one of these opening-day hat-tricks scored away from home.

He backed it up with another hat-trick back in Rome a week later, in a 6-1 win over Udinese. Another pair of back-to-back hat-tricks followed for Manfredini that November, including one in the derby.

Donyell Malen (2026)

Malen was the only player in all of Serie A to score a hat-trick in the 2025-26 season, doing so on his 14th appearance for Roma against Pisa in April.

His sensational scoring exploits after his January move put him in contention for an unlikely golden boot, before he ultimately finished three goals shy of Inter’s Lautaro Martínez.

Malen was the fastest out of the blocks in the race to become 2026-27’s Capocannoniere, though, with his three goals – all assisted by Paulo Dybala – on the opening day against Fiorentina.