Roma had to throw Devis Vásquez in at the deep end for their Champions League clash with Manchester United, but he isn’t the only player to have made his debut for the club in that competition.
Most often, players will make their debut for the club in a Serie A game. If it’s a youngster, they might be eased in with a Coppa Italia appearance. Some have been given their first chance in a Europa League or Conference League game.
But the stakes are higher in the Champions League and it’s rarer for a player to be thrust onto that stage before having any experience playing for the club in another competition.
Here’s the full list of Roma players whose debut for the club came in a Champions League game. It only includes players who debuted in the group stage/league phase or beyond, which rules out five players who debuted in the 2016 play-offs against Porto (Alisson Becker, Juan Jesus, Thomas Vermaelen, Federico Fazio and Gerson).
Daniele De Rossi
A strong start. A fresh-faced De Rossi made his Roma bow in the last game of the group stage in Roma’s first ever Champions League campaign, against Anderlecht at home in October 2001.
De Rossi came on as a substitute in the second half for Ivan Tomić as Roma, already assured of qualification to the next round as runners up to Real Madrid, played out a 1-1 draw.
De Rossi earned a further three appearances that season in the Coppa Italia, but had to wait until midway through the next season, in January 2003, to debut in Serie A as a starter against Como.
Of course, he went on to become captain of the club and one of their longest-serving players. By the time he left in 2019, he had made 61 appearances in the Champions League, which, being four more than Francesco Totti achieved, remains a club record.
Traianos Dellas
After leaving Sheffield United for AEK Athens in 1999, Dellas played once in a Champions League qualifier for the Greek side, but never in the competition proper.
Thus, when he stepped out as a starter for Roma against Real Madrid in September 2002 at the start of the group stage, it was his first experience of playing at that level.
Dellas lasted the full game, but Roma lost 3-0. They would eventually advance as runners up to Madrid for a second season running, with Dellas playing in two more Champions League games.
The defender stuck around until 2005, but it was only really in his last season, buoyed by being part of Greece’s successful Euro 2004 squad, that he played with any kind of regularity.
Pep Guardiola
A three-time Champions League winner as a manager – twice with Barcelona and once with Manchester City – Guardiola won’t look back on his half-season with Roma as the pinnacle of his career.
It was something of a swansong for the ex-Barcelona midfielder, who’d arrived in Italy with Brescia before joining Roma in the summer of 2002.
His debut as a half-time substitute the same loss to Real Madrid that September was the first of only six appearances in his brief Roma career. None of the others were in the Champions League.
Giuseppe Scurto
Signed as a prospect from Sampdoria in 2002, Scurto initially finished his development in Roma’s youth ranks before getting his first-team chance.
The call came for an October 2004 Champions League group game away to Bayer Leverkusen. A 20-year-old Scurto started and lasted the full 90 minutes.
But it ended as a 3-1 defeat for Roma, who finished the game with nine men after red cards for Christian Panucci and De Rossi.
Scurto ultimately played 16 times for Roma, all that season but only once more in the Champions League, before being sold to Chievo Verona.
He later returned to Roma as the under-18s coach for the 2021-22 campaign, before getting the chance to lead Torino’s Primavera side.
Matteo Ferrari
As far as starts to a Roma career go, there aren’t many more turbulent than Ferrari’s – and not necessarily because of how he played.
He was signed in 2004 from Parma, following new coach Cesare Prandelli to the capital. It seemed to be a good platform for his next step, but Prandelli resigned before the season started.
Rudi Völler was the man to give Ferrari his debut instead, against Dynamo Kyiv in September 2004. But the game wasn’t even completed; it was abandoned after the referee was hit by an object from the crowd.
Despite the game being given to Dynamo Kyiv as a walkover win, it still counts towards Ferrari’s Roma appearance tally, which eventually reached 108.
Rodrigo Defendi
Signed on loan from Tottenham Hotspur for the 2006-07 season, being yet to debut for the Premier League side, Defendi struggled to get much of a look in at Roma as well.
The suitably named defender had played four times on loan at Udinese the season before, but the 20-year-old only got to play twice for Roma – and neither time was in the league.
His first outing was as a stoppage-time substitute against Olympiacos in October 2006, with Roma winning their group game 1-0 in Greece.
The only other time Luciano Spalletti used him was in a Coppa Italia win over Triestina the following month.
Vitorino Antunes
Brought in on loan from Paços de Ferreira in 2007, Antunes had to wait until December to debut for Roma.
The left-back finally got his chance in Roma’s last group game against Manchester United. With both sides already through, he featured as a starter in the 1-1 draw and was voted as the best player on the night for Spalletti’s side on the club website.
His Coppa Italia debut followed a week later before he finally got his first chance to play in Serie A in January 2008.
Roma made his loan permanent by the end of the season, but he never played for the club beyond it.
Gianluca Caprari
A product of the Roma academy, Caprari earned his senior debut at the age of 17 in March 2011. It was as a late substitute against Shakhtar Donetsk in the second leg of the round of 16, with elimination staring Roma in the face.
Vincenzo Montella saw fit to give Caprari his first few minutes in the first team, taking off Simone Perrotta for the young attacker.
Caprari later made his first two Serie A appearances either side of his Coppa Italia debut that May. But he only played four more times for the club – including twice in the Europa League play-offs – after Montella’s caretaker spell in charge.
He managed to establish himself in Serie A eventually, earning promotion with Pescara before spells with Sampdoria, Parma, Benevento, Hellas Verona and Monza. However, despite being on Inter’s books briefly, he never again got to play in Europe.
Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa
Signed late in the summer 2014 transfer window, Yanga-Mbiwa was left on the bench for Roma’s first league game after his arrival, but was introduced a few days later in the Champions League.
Roma hosted CSKA Moscow in their group-stage opener, with Yanga-Mbiwa coming on for about the last 15 minutes.
By the time the defender came on, Roma were already 5-0 up, so it was a comfortable way to ease him in. It finished 5-1 in the end.
The Newcastle loanee earned his first start and Serie A debut at the very next opportunity that weekend. But it was what he did in his last appearance for the club – scoring the winner in the derby – that he would become most famous for.
Edoardo Soleri
Soleri was a Rome-born graduate of the club’s academy. Rudi Garcia gave the striker his debut on matchday two of the 2015-16 Champions League group stage, away at BATE Borisov.
Soleri replaced Alessandro Florenzi in stoppage time as Roma chased an equaliser, but it never came. Having conceded three times in the opening half an hour, Roma lost 3-2.
Soleri, who only got three touches during his brief cameo, never made another senior appearance for Roma before being farmed out on loan and eventually spending the bulk of his career in the second and third tiers.
Nicolò Zaniolo
There was some intrigue about Zaniolo’s potential when he came to Roma in 2018, but he wasn’t expected to become a regular starter. Signed as a makeweight from Inter Milan in the deal that saw Radja Nainggolan sold, Zaniolo was a teenager who had played in Serie B before for Virtus Entella, but never made his senior debut for Inter.
Roma thought about sending him out on loan as soon as he arrived, but Eusebio Di Francesco saw something he wanted to work with. Still, it was seen as a bold move when he threw him in for his debut as a starter against Real Madrid in Roma’s opening group game.
Zaniolo took his place in the midfield three and lasted until about 10 minutes into the second half of Roma’s 3-0 loss at the Bernabeu.
But time would prove that Di Francesco’s instincts that Zaniolo was ready were right to a degree. He eventually flourished as an attacking midfielder, making 128 appearances for the club and scoring the goal that won Roma the Conference League.
His time with the club ended in disharmony, and his career after leaving didn’t take off how he’d have liked, but he definitely had a better Roma career than most of the others in this list.
Devis Vásquez
Roma were already without their main goalkeeper Mile Svilar for their Champions League group game against Manchester United in November 2026, so it was even more concerning when usual backup Pierluigi Gollini fell to a back injury on the day of the game.
Up stepped third-choice Vásquez, who had joined the club in the summer of 2025 when it was thought that Gollini might leave, only to see his fellow keeper stay and thus proceeding to have to spend the second half of the season on loan at Beşiktaş.
More than a year after joining Roma, Vásquez finally got to pull on the shirt. And it was going well for him at first; Roma were 2-0 up and he saved a penalty by Bruno Fernandes. However, encroachment meant the penalty had to be retaken. Fernandes scored and set United on their way to a comeback that would end in them winning 3-2.
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