After Riccardo Calafiori's transfer to Arsenal was confirmed, Italian football expert Nicky Bandini looks at the Italy defender's difficult journey to the top.
The doctors who attended Riccardo Calafiori after he blew out his knee in 2018 could scarcely believe how severe the damage was.
He had been taken to Villa Stuart, a hospital which specialises in sports traumatology – the diagnosis and treatment of injuries sustained during athletic pursuits. They knew the teenager had hurt himself playing football, yet struggled to square that information with what they saw.
“Something like this could usually only happen in motocross,” one was quoted as saying in the newspaper Il Corriere dello Sport. “This is the sort of incident that happens once every 10 years.”
Calafiori had been playing for Roma against Viktoria Plzen in the UEFA Youth League when Vaclav Svoboda crashed into his left leg with studs raised.
Every ligament, as well as the meniscus and capsule of the Italian’s left knee were torn. He has since credited Roma’s physio for popping the joint back into place on the pitch, “otherwise who knows how it would have ended. Maybe today I would struggle to walk.”
Instead, he has sealed a dream move to Arsenal after a breakout season at Bologna, whom he helped to return to the UEFA Champions League for the first time in 60 years. Calafiori followed that up by making his debut for the Italian national team and becoming one of few players to emerge with credit from their failed title defence at EURO 2024.
It has been a winding journey to get here. Prior to his injuries, Calafiori was one of the brightest prospects in Roma’s academy, scouted at nine years old and handed a professional contract at 16 as he helped their Under-17 team to become champions of Italy.
He responded with determination to the setback, calling it “the most important battle of my life” and finding support from the senior team.
Striker Edin Dzeko held up Calafiori’s shirt after scoring a hat-trick against Plzen in the Champions League. Roma legend Daniele De Rossi visited him in hospital and gave him lifts to physio sessions and home again after.
Calafiori’s injuries sidelined him for almost a full year, yet in August 2020 he made his debut for Roma’s first team.
He made eight appearances the following season and had almost matched that number again in 2021/22 – Jose Mourinho’s first year in charge – before a 6-1 defeat to Bodo Glimt in the Europa Conference League group stage.
💬 “It feels amazing but from my point of view, it’s just the start, the beginning of something bigger, so I’m excited to start to play for Arsenal.”
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) July 29, 2024
Watch Riccardo Calafiori’s exclusive first interview right here 👇
The whole team put in an ugly performance, but Calafiori endured an especially unhappy game at left-back. Afterward Mourinho suggested the only positive note from was that now nobody would keep asking him why the players who started that night did not get more chances in Serie A.
Calafiori would play a total of 12 more minutes for Roma before being sent on loan to Genoa and then sold to FC Basle for €4m. De Rossi, who replaced Mourinho as manager this January, said recently that he finds the club’s decision to let a homegrown talent leave so cheaply “difficult to swallow”.
Perhaps, though, this was the right move for Calafiori at the right time. There were opportunities to stay in Italy, but after barely playing at Genoa, his priority was to get regular games. As important as it had been to be surrounded by support during his rehabilitation, perhaps there was also a need now to step out of his comfort zone.
“Even the fact of living alone here [in Switzerland] helps me just to focus on my football,” Calafiori said last April. “I feel I have matured a great deal.”
He returned to that theme in a more recent interview for Sportweek magazine, saying “my 22 years are different to other kids my age”. His career is barely beginning but already he has overcome a devastating injury, worked abroad and bought his parents a home so they could finally stop renting.
His on-pitch evolution is no less remarkable. Calafiori began his career at left-back, but after playing some games in a back three at Basle was adapted by his Bologna coach, Thiago Motta, into a roaming centre-back last season in a notional back four. In an era when formations are becoming ever-more fluid, his role has drawn comparisons to that of John Stones at Manchester City.
“He is a reference point for me, there’s no doubt about that,” said Calafiori. “But it all starts with the freedom your manager gives you … I learned a whole ocean of things from Motta.”
Where he fits into Mikel Arteta’s schemes at Arsenal remains to be seen. It is hard to imagine the manager wanting to disrupt the centre-back partnership of Gabriel and William Saliba, but the Italian could provide cover for both as well as the possibility of returning to left-back.
What is clear is that the Gunners are getting a young player undaunted by a new stage. Calafiori only made his Italy debut as a substitute in a Euro 2024 warm-up game against Turkey this June, but when his country needed a goal against Croatia in the final group game it was he who strode forward to set up Mattia Zaccagni in 97th minute.
“He’s a person who takes decisions on the pitch,” said Motta early last season. “He drags others along with him in doing the right things.”
Or perhaps dragging is the wrong metaphor. Calafiori’s father nicknamed him "Ruspa", or Bulldozer, “because I would not stop for anything”.
Not even a shredded knee could slow him down for long.
15 facts you need to know about Riccardo Calafiori
Nicky Bandini (@nickybandini) is a sports writer and broadcaster who specialises in European football