If you look at the list of Roma’s all-time top scorers, you’ll find names like Roberto Pruzzo, Vincenzo Montella and Abel Balbo in the top 10, who all had something in common.
Each of those strikers was signed from a different Serie A club, bringing with them experience of Italian football. And let’s not forget Gabriel Batistuta, whose move from Fiorentina in 2000 was followed by a Scudetto-inspiring debut season.
But good strikers are hard to find and sometimes a club has to search further afield for a new centre-forward.
Here, Giallorossi Yorkshire recaps the 10 strikers (just the out-and-out centre-forwards and not other attacking players) in the 21st Century whom Roma have brought to Serie A for the first time in their careers.
Evan Ferguson (2025)
Ferguson played against Roma in both legs of the Europa League clash with Brighton in the 2023-24 campaign, coming on as a substitute at both the Amex Stadium and the Olimpico.
Fast forward 16 months and Ferguson has become Roma’s new striker after joining on loan from the Premier League side.
Ferguson is the first Irish player in Roma’s first-team history and is also the subject of the largest ever option to buy that the club have had for a loan player.
With 13 Premier League goals behind him, all but one as a teenager, Ferguson will be hoping to make an impact in Italian football.
Artem Dovbyk (2024)
Dovbyk was the top scorer in La Liga in the 2023-24 season, after which Roma snuck in to sign him from Girona when it previously looked like he was bound for Atlético de Madrid.
Never before had Roma signed the current top goalscorer of one of Europe’s main leagues, but more than €30m got them Dovbyk.
The Ukraine international had a decent first season in Serie A, scoring 12 goals from 32 games in the league. He added five more goals between the Europa League and Coppa Italia.
Sardar Azmoun (2023)
Born in Iran, Azmoun made a name for himself in Russia across spells with Rubin Kazan, Rostov and Zenit Saint Petersburg, around which time he first caught Roma’s attention.
But it was after an 18-month spell in Germany with Bayer Leverkusen, for whom he played against Roma in the Europa League, that Azmoun made his way to Italy.
The reception for Azmoun at the airport was muted, especially in contrast to how Romelu Lukaku was welcomed a few days later.
Although a hard worker, Azmoun only scored three times for Roma, who didn’t use their option to buy him.
Tammy Abraham (2021)
Abraham was initially hesitant when Roma tried luring him away from the Premier League after he fell down the pecking order at Chelsea, but he soon took the move in his stride.
The new striker José Mourinho desired, Abraham got off to a strong start in Serie A, scoring 17 league goals in his debut season. Not only was that more than any other English player before in Serie A, but his all-competitions tally of 27 was more than any Roma player at all in a debut season.
However, Abraham wasn’t as impactful from that point on. He stayed in Serie A with his next move, joining AC Milan on loan for the 2024-25 season, but they didn’t want to keep him and he headed to Beşiktaş instead.
Borja Mayoral (2020)
Towards the end of the prolonged summer 2020 transfer window, Roma replenished their striker department by adding Borja Mayoral on a two-year loan from Real Madrid.
It wasn’t his first venture abroad, since he had played in Germany with Wolfsburg before, but it was a new challenge for the Spaniard.
On the whole, Mayoral performed well as a rotation striker, scoring 10 goals in Serie A and 7 in the Europa League.
But Roma let him go halfway through the second year of his loan so he could return to the Spanish capital with Getafe.
Edin Džeko (2015)
Ending up as Roma’s third highest goalscorer of all time, Džeko didn’t actually live up to expectations in his first season in Serie A.
The striker joined what was meant to be a title-threatening Roma side to great enthusiasm in 2015 from Manchester City after playing against them in the Champions League the previous season.
But Džeko’s goal tally at the first time of asking in the Italian top flight was a paltry 8.
Nevertheless, his move became permanent and Džeko then became the Capocannoniere (top scorer) the following season with 29 goals in the league, eventually going on to reach 85 with Roma and reaching triple figures during his next stint with Inter.
Seydou Doumbia (2015)
By the time he joined Roma in 2015, Doumbia had already played in his native Ivory Coast, Japan, Switzerland and Russia.
Costing more than €14m to sign from CSKA Moscow, Doumbia scored just twice in his six-month spell with Roma before they started shipping him out on loan elsewhere – including new spells in England and Portugal – as they made room for the Džeko era.
Doumbia’s permanent exit didn’t happen until 2018, when Spanish side Girona acquired his services.
Shabani Nonda (2005)
After seven seasons in the French top flight with Rennes and Monaco, Nonda joined a rebuilding Roma in 2005 at the start of Luciano Spalletti’s first reign.
He only played 15 times in his debut Serie A season, scoring 4 goals. It wasn’t enough for him to remain in the club’s plans and he subsequently moved to Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League on loan before being sold to Galatasaray.
Mido (2004)
One of many great mysteries of strikers with good track records elsewhere but nothing to show for it in Rome, Mido never scored in 8 Serie A appearances, nor 6 other games in cups for Roma.
A well-travelled striker, the Egyptian left Zamalek in his homeland in 2000 before taking in the likes of Gent, Ajax, Celta de Vigo and Marseille until his ill-fated Roma spell.
Among his future clubs were Middlesbrough and Barnsley.
John Carew (2003)
Carew left Valencia to join Roma in 2003, taking him to a second new country outside of his native Norway.
Playing in Fabio Capello’s final season in charge of the Giallorossi, Carew didn’t last any longer. After scoring 6 goals from 20 games in the league, he left for Beşiktaş in 2004.
Like Doumbia, Baptista, Nonda and Mido, he never returned to Serie A with another club.
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