Twenty minutes, and Italy was sold
Leonardo Balerdi made his AS Roma debut last night in the Giallorossi’s stunning 2-1 comeback win over Atalanta. Thrown on late, the Argentine did his job with a calmness that caught the eye of Italian observers.
The ratings from the local press told the same story. Il Messaggero and La Gazzetta dello Sport both handed him a 6.5, while Il Tempo went with a 7. For a 20-minute cameo, that is a warm reception. The papers praised his “bags of personality” and called it a “decisive entrance”.
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Everything Marseille said he wasn’t
At OM, Balerdi split opinion for several seasons. He could play out cleanly from the back and string together solid performances, but the 27-year-old defender was also criticised, again and again, for inconsistency and poor positioning. The heaviest charge was that he went missing when the pressure arrived.
In Rome, the early verdict reads like the opposite report. Italian media have picked out his “willingness to take responsibility” and his forward passing. In a back three, the fit looks obvious. Gian Piero Gasperini’s pecking order could shift faster than anyone expected.
The Curva Sud has already made up its mind
Online, the reaction was instant. One supporter summed up the mood by saying Marseille let a “monster” slip through their fingers. Another admitted he was only just discovering the “elegance and defensive tidiness” of a player he had never really watched.
The real test is still to come. One match tells you nothing about consistency, and consistency is exactly what followed Balerdi around as a complaint throughout his time in Ligue 1. Rome hands him a more structured tactical setup and the status of a new arrival rather than a man expected to carry a defence on his own. Now he has to back it up week after week.
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