Having partaken in Chelsea training earlier in the day, Davide Zappacosta landed in the Italian capital last night, looking to finalize his season-long loan move to AS Roma. Normally, this sort of thing would be quite hush-hush — on the q.t. — but in this case we have AS Roma’s official Twitter account confirming the arrival of the right back.
Davide Zappacosta arrives in Rome...
— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) August 20, 2019
pic.twitter.com/Z7HzW5UCIP
It’s all very above board, perhaps owing to recently appointed AS Roma sporting director Gianluca Petrachi, who had spent the previous decade at Torino FC, Zappacosta’s previous calling station before his €25m move to Chelsea two years ago — earning Petrachi almost 6x returns in the process, after he paid just €4.3m to Atalanta two years prior.
The now 27-year-old right back even stopped for a brief chat with Italian television.
“I’ve missed Italy so much. I’m happy to be back here in Rome.”
-Davide Zappacosta; source: Sky Italia via Football Italia
To make room for Zappacosta, Roma are sending one-time Inter and Newcastle full back Davide Santon on loan to Real Mallorca. Mallorca will have a buy option on their Davide loanee, but it appears that Roma will not have one on theirs. Still, should Zappacosta find success (again) back in Italy, the market for him next summer should be a lot stronger than this year.