When Riccardo Calafiori joined Bologna this time last year, it was to little fanfare. Once regarded as one of Italy’s most promising talents, the Roman returned to his native country from Basel still waiting to make his breakthrough.
But in the space of the following 12 months, he went from being left out of Italy’s Under-21 squad to being an Azzurri regular at Euro 2024 - after playing a crucial role in Bologna's remarkable Champions League qualification. Calafiori's name first appeared on the radar of European football afficionados back in October 2018, when Roma striker Edin Dzeko dedicated a Champions League hat-trick against Viktoria Plzen to him by holding up the Giallorossi prospect’s shirt to the cameras.
That was because earlier that day, Calafiori had suffered a horrifying knee injury in a UEFA Youth League match that threatened to end his burgeoning career before it started.
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An Italian title winner with Roma at youth level, Calafiori’s talent was such that super-agent Mino Raiola snapped him up as a client before he hit the senior scene. But a rash challenge left his knee shattered, with all the ligaments in the meniscus and capsule of his knee ruptured, and he had to travel to the United States for surgery.
“The journey was definitely the hardest thing I faced, I had a knee that was three times the size of the other one, I had a fever and I felt insecure,” he later told Roma TV. Remarkably, Calafiori bounced back and was named in UEFA’s ’50 for the future’ list in 2019 as well as The Guardian’s 'Next Generation' selection of the 60 best young talents in the world.
His senior debut for Roma arrived aged 18 in August 2020 under Paulo Fonseca, when he won a penalty and scored a disallowed goal against Juventus. It was an impressive start for the young left-back that suggested he might bring his attacking talents at youth level into the first team after all.
However, Fonseca’s successor Jose Mourinho soon deemed the defender surplus to requirements – despite posting a video of himself “studying” the youngster before arriving in Rome – and sent him on a forgettable loan to Genoa.
Calafiori’s search for game time took him to Switzerland next, as he joined Basel in the summer of 2022. His spell in the Super League was a game-changer.
Not only did the defender finally gain regular minutes, making 34 appearances for Basel across all competitions, but he showed his versatility by moving inside to play as a centre-back in a three-man defence. It was, seemingly, an easy transition for the youngster.
Standing at 6’2”, he has the size and physicality to go with the technical prowess he honed coming through the ranks as an attack-minded full-back. One season in Switzerland was all it took before he received the call from back home, with Bologna reaching out to seal a deal for a long-term target.
“We followed him throughout his time at Basel and he can now play in central defence as well,” said Bologna sporting director Marco Di Vaio. “I think he can be the future of this club.”
It was a big statement for a player who had only played one full season of first-team football in his career, but Di Vaio’s instinct was spot on. Under Thiago Motta, Calafiori flourished as a ball-playing centre-back in Bologna’s 4-2-3-1, willing to carry the ball out of defence and help in the construction of moves as well as being the cornerstone of the third-best defence in Serie A last season.
“Everything started from the freedom that the coach gave me, Motta immediately saw me as a centre-back,” Calafiori said. “I learned so much from him. This is his philosophy, that you must attack the space no matter who goes, play without fear and express yourself.”
It was a remarkable transformation for many Serie A viewers who had only seen the player make fleeting appearances as a substitute or rotation player before then, almost always at left-back. The confidence of Calafiori – and Bologna as a whole – only grew as the year went on, culminating in the defender being named Serie A Player of the Month in May as the Rossoblu sealed a top-five finish that qualified them for their first-ever Champions League campaign.
He finished the season with two goals and five assists to his name in 30 Serie A appearances, earning a place in the Team of the Season and a nomination on the three-man list for Defender of the Year. Wild celebrations followed, as did an unexpected smooch live on air, but things only got better from then on.
Calafiori earned his maiden Italy call-up in June and after making his Azzurri debut against Turkey from the bench and first start against Bosnia and Herzegovina in two Euro 2024 warm-up games, he found himself in the starting XI in a major tournament. Calafiori was one of the few Italy players to emerge from his country’s title defence with any credit.
His performances in defence earned him praise, despite scoring an unfortunate own goal in the 1-0 defeat to Spain. He soon made up for it.
It was the Bologna man’s outstanding charge from deep in his own half to the edge of the Croatian box and lay-off to Mattia Zaccagni that set up the dramatic late equaliser that ensured the Italians would at least make the knockout rounds.
Calafiori could only watch on from the stands as Italy went out with a whimper to Switzerland in the last 16 after he picked up a suspension, but his composed, creative displays and Paolo Maldini-esque hairstyle had already captured the imagination of viewers across the continent. The question now is - if he can improve this much in a year, what does the future hold for the 22-year-old?
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