Opinion: Why Florenzi is Roma’s Capitano Futuro Futuro

The lineage in Roma’s ranks is perhaps more clearly delineated than it is for any other club in world football.

The captain is obvious and without argument: Francesco Totti, the side’s greatest ever player, who has broken more records and won more awards for the side than any other.

Next in line is Daniele De Rossi, the homegrown tenacious midfielder who helped Italy win a World Cup and stayed at the club amongst high interest from English and Spanish sides.

Who comes next in armband order has been a question in flux over the past few seasons; Luis Enrique preferred the wealth of experience and class Seydou Keita had, and Miralem Pjanic, Leandro Castan and Kevin Strootman could all make a case that they’ve earned the ability to don the captaincy in the absence of the aforementioned duo.

Today, none of those three are Roma’s third captain. It has fallen to the most natural successor in the most natural of ways: Alessandro Florenzi.

With Totti having struggled with injuries this season and currently unable to break back into the side, as well as De Rossi’s niggling physical woes, it’s the man who serves as Roma’s heartbeat that has taken on the mantle of the captaincy so brilliantly.

Once either returns, the captaincy will rightly return to one of them, but in the meantime, Florenzi has proven that he truly deserves to be next in line.

Florenzi embodies this young Roma side perfectly.

Stefan El Shaarawy, Mohamed Salah, Kostas Manolas, Antonio Rudiger, and Lucas Digne are all regular starters and all under 25 years old. Under Luciano Spalletti’s system, they play a dynamic, fast-paced version of football, based on athleticism and grit.

He’s not a natural right-back, but is doing more than well enough playing in the backline to help Roma rocket up the table.

As the stretch of games has become more and more pressing as the side look to stamp their authority on third and aim to overtake Napoli in second, Florenzi’s stature has grown; his sensational and deft finish against Udinese was something even the best strikers in the world could appreciate, and his goal in the Derby to nullify Lazio’s growing momentum meant that he capped off his first ever captaincy against Roma’s bitter rival with perhaps the most crucial of the four goals Roma scored.

The side suits him, and he suits this side.

And those goals are becoming the most unique and undeniable asset to Florenzi’s game.

Even when he’s caught out of position – in those moments where it become apparent that he’s not truly a full-back by trade, but Roma’s ultimate Swiss Army Knife – he has come to find a way to make up for it with his goalscoring abilities.

He now has seven goals for Roma in 25 starts this season, which is all the more remarkable when you consider how deep he plays.

He’s tireless, blessed with more guile than many may expect from a midfielder-turned-winger-turned-fullback, and never stops working for the side. His versatility, homegrown status and audacious style of play – never afraid to try anything, scorer of goals spectacular and outrageous – are effective enough for him to be the perfect kind of player for Spalletti’s system; smart and able enough to be homogenous and add to the team overall, but creative and individual enough to make the difference on his own when the need arises.

Keita, Pjanic, Strootman, and Castan are all fantastic players that have bettered Roma since their arrival and are integral parts of the team in their own way.

But there’s only one homegrown player in the squad who forces his way into the hearts of Romanisti and into the net of the opposition by giving his all every time he steps onto the pitch, and for that, when Totti and De Rossi are sidelined, the armband is on the very best of locations when it lies on the arm of Alessandro Florenzi.