Stories of the Faithful: the Roman Heartbreaker Daniele De Rossi

If we were to focus on the most loyal footballers in history, midfielder Daniele De Rossi could certainly not be missing from the list. The Italian footballer linked his career with AS Roma, where he played for 18 long years.

Daniele De Rossi was born on 24 July 1983 in Rome and also spent the vast majority of his football career in the Italian capital. He is thus inextricably linked to the famous local club AS Roma.

Daniele De Rossi joined AS Roma in 2000 and a year later he made his debut in the A team jersey. It was in a Champions League match against Anderlecht. De Rossi made his first league start at the beginning of 2003.

The Italian youngster surprised and impressed so much with his performances that he soon made his way into the starting line-up of his team. He was highly praised by the Italian football public, so it is not surprising that De Rossi found himself on the radar of famous clubs around the world at a young age.

However, De Rossi turned down all offers and decided to develop his career at AS Roma. His performances and leadership skills were so good that he donned the captain’s armband for the first time in 2006.

At that time, De Rossi was experiencing his best years in football. First, he won the World Cup with the national team in 2006, then a year later he dominated the League Cup with AS Roma, repeating this success with the club a year later. In 2007, AS Roma also won the Italian Super Cup.

In 2012, De Rossi signed a new contract with AS Roma and became the highest paid footballer in the league. But after this event, everything went downhill. Under Czech coach Zdeněk Zeman, he didn’t get as many opportunities and fell out of his usual match rhythm.

Even when he rejoined the starting lineup after the arrival of new coaches, it was not the same as before. Moreover, De Rossi was slowly losing faith in the strength of his team. It all culminated in a near-final transfer to Manchester United, but the transfer eventually fell through. Later, in hindsight, De Rossi described staying at the Roman club as a good decision.

De Rossi’s starts continued to increase until, in 2019, the club’s management made the unexpected announcement that they would not be renewing their legend’s contract. The leader is none other than Francesco Totti.

In the summer of 2019, De Rossi transferred to the Argentine club Boca Juniors, for which he had already shown some affection. However, the engagement didn’t go to plan as he only managed to play five games. Due to injury, he was then forced to retire from active football at the beginning of 2020.

Source: Serie A, AS Roma