Roma to activate Balerdi’s buy option | OneFootball

Three appearances against Atalanta, Torino, and Inter have already been enough to leave a strong impression.

Leonardo Balerdi arrived at Roma on loan from Marseille, but everything suggests his experience with the Giallorossi will last well beyond this season.

Roma had already pursued him last season, but the €30 million Marseille were asking for proved a daunting prospect.

Then the French club’s situation changed, and an opportunity arose at Trigoria that Tony D’Amico didn’t let slip.

The deal was finalized on the basis of a €1 million loan, with a buyout mechanism tied to the number of appearances played for at least 45 minutes.

There are three tiers: €14 million for at least 55% of the matches, €11 million for between 40 and 55%, and €9 million for at least 20%. These percentages, considering the Argentine’s impact and Gasperini’s approval rating, already make the prospect of a permanent stay very concrete, if not a given.

The impression is that Balerdi is destined to play a lot, if not a great deal, between now and the end of the season.

The reason is primarily tactical. Gasperini appreciates the Argentine center-back’s marking ability, his ability to build from the back, and the personality he’s shown since his first appearances.

But there’s one characteristic that makes him particularly valuable in the Giallorossi system: his speed in defensive recovery. Roma defends very high, pressuring the opposition half, and often leaving forty meters or more behind their own defensive line to protect.

In such a context, having a center-back capable of running back, recovering space, and extinguishing dangerous situations becomes almost indispensable.

This is precisely why Balerdi seems to have settled in so quickly. He’s not just a good defender: he has characteristics that seem tailor-made for Gasperini’s style of football.

The coach himself immediately underlined the importance of the move: “Leonardo is a captain, we knew the player’s value well.” These words reveal how convinced Roma were of the deal even before seeing him in action at the Olimpico.