An away match against Porto was Roma’s most recent Champions League game, all the way back in March 2019. After finally confirming their return to UEFA’s top competition by May 2026, what has happened since to Roma’s starting XI, subs and coach that day?
GK: Robin Olsen
Now back at Malmö FF at the age of 36, Olsen only played three more times for Roma after the Porto game before being dropped. After four loan spells – at Cagliari, Everton, Sheffield United and Aston Villa – he was finally sold to the latter in 2022, where he stayed until 2025.
RCB: Kostas Manolas
Manolas returned to Greece in 2024 to play local football with hometown club, Pannaxiakos – as a striker. Now 35, he was briefly linked with a return to Roma just before that move, having left the club for Napoli at the end of the 2018-19 season, but there was no substance to the rumours.
CB: Juan Jesus
Also 35 now, Juan Jesus is a free agent after spending the past five seasons with Napoli after leaving Roma in 2021. He won the Scudetto twice there.
LCB: Iván Marcano
The first of four players from the last Roma starting lineup against Porto now retired, Marcano had arrived from the Portuguese side in 2018 and was sold back to them after one season. The 39-year-old, who became Porto’s captain, played more than 100 times in his second spell with them before hanging up his boots.
RWB: Rick Karsdorp
Karsdorp’s contract at Roma was terminated ahead of the 2024-25 season so he could join PSV, where he played in the Champions League again seven times before taking a career break. Now 31, he had been loaned out by Roma in 2019-20 to Feyenoord before returning for four mixed seasons.
CM: Daniele De Rossi
The scorer of Roma’s last Champions League goal, De Rossi has since left the club, gone to play in Argentina, retired, managed in Serie B, returned to Roma as head coach, been sacked, taken a year out of management and been appointed by Genoa – all before Roma got back in the Champions League.
CM: Steven Nzonzi
Like Olsen and Marcano, Nzonzi didn’t play for Roma beyond the 2018-19 season, his only in the first team before they sold him in 2021 after loans at Galatasaray and Rennes. At 37, he recently concluded a second spell with Stoke City before signing for French second-tier side, Dunkerque.
LWB: Aleksandar Kolarov
Chronologically the second member of this starting XI to retire after De Rossi, Kolarov (who left Roma in 2020 and ended his career in 2022) has since worked as a sporting director for Pisa (briefly), managed the Serbia under-21 team and is now an assistant coach for another of his ex-teams, Inter.
AM: Nicolò Zaniolo
During his debut season with the club, Zaniolo scored a brace in the first leg between Roma and Porto in 2019. He left in February 2023 for Galatasaray and scored against Roma while on loan at Atalanta in 2024-25. He found some form again with Udinese last season before eventually committing to staying there.
AM: Diego Perotti
Perotti was in his penultimate Roma season at the time of the Porto game. The winger retired in 2024 aged 36 after two years of inactivity after an injury-riddled end to his career. He has dabbled in the seven-a-side Kings League, played in a Roma legends game against Everton in 2025, and has been learning about becoming an agent.
CF: Edin Džeko
Roma’s all-time top scorer in Europe (excluding qualifiers), Džeko is still going strong at 40 for Schalke, who he scored six goals for over the second half of last season (after an ill-fated return to Italy with Fiorentina) to help them gain promotion to the Bundesliga. He left Roma for Inter in 2021, just as José Mourinho was taking charge. The Bosnian went to the World Cup this summer before retiring from international football.
Embed from Getty ImagesSUB: Bryan Cristante
A symbol of Roma’s struggles to return to Champions League level for some, Cristante finally experienced finishing in the top four with the club for the first time in his eighth season. To emphasise how long that has been, he recently surpassed 350 appearances for the Giallorossi. He became captain last season and is now among the club’s top 10 all-time appearance makers.
SUB: Lorenzo Pellegrini
Also still at Roma with mixed popularity, fellow midfielder Pellegrini was promoted to the captaincy in early 2021. He also has more than 300 appearances for the club, as well as more than 60 goals, and performed reasonably well in the last year of his contract to earn a renewal for the 2026-27 season. Whenever he bows out, he will be remembered as the captain who lifted the Europa Conference League for Roma in 2022.
SUB: Patrick Schick
Schick left Roma in 2019 after two underwhelming seasons, but has been at Bayer Leverkusen since 2020 and scored more than 100 goals for the German side, where he became a Bundesliga champion in 2023-24.
SUB: Alessandro Florenzi
Florenzi succeeded De Rossi as Roma’s captain in the summer of 2019 but left half a season later. The right-back was at AC Milan from 2021, winning the Scudetto with them in his debut season, until he retired in 2025.
HEAD COACH: Eusebio Di Francesco
Sacked by Roma after the Porto defeat and replaced by Claudio Ranieri, who was back in charge of Roma again in 2024-25, Di Francesco – having since managed Sampdoria, Cagliari, Verona, Frosinone and Venezia – is currently at Lecce, who he steered to safety last season and lost 4-0 to Roma with in the second game of the 2026-27 season.
This article was originally published on 13th February, 2025, and has been updated since.
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