Ricardo Calafiori - The Roma wonderkid whose career almost never began. He has missed 567 days through injury in his short career so far but the story would be incomplete if we end it there.
At the age of 22, the Ex-Roma left centre-back Ricardo Calafiori is regarded as one of the best young defenders in Italian football, with the defender making his mark in the Italian national team after a stellar showing at Euro 2024.
Rewind just over four years, however, and there was a feeling that Calafiori’s career was over before it had even started.
How Ricardo Calafiori Got Injured
Making just his second appearance for Roma’s Under-19s against Viktoria Plzen in the UEFA Youth League in October 2018, Calafiori was the victim of a horrendous, studs-up challenge from Czech Striker Vaclav Svoboda in the 82nd minute that “tore his right knee to pieces” see video here.
Ricardo Calafiori suffers horrific challenge
Calafiori left the field on a stretcher and unfortunately, the diagnosis was grave according to what ‘Il Corriere dello Sport’ reported.
All of the ligaments in Calafiori’s joint had been ruptured along with his meniscus and articular capsule, with doctors declaring at the time it was an injury that “occurs once every 10 years” and was more akin to the kind of trauma a motocross rider would suffer from, rather than a footballer.
The youngster was told, in no uncertain terms, that the injury was career-threatening.
His Journey Back From Injury
An individual with less desire to make it to the top may have given up on their dream there and then, but Calafiori had come too far to walk away. After undergoing surgery in the United States, his long road back to the training pitches began.
A highly-regarded member of Roma’s academy since the age of nine, Calafiori first came to prominence in the 2017-18 season when, as a 15-year-old, he played a key role in the club’s U17s winning the league and cup double.
Such was his talent, super-agent Mino Raiola quickly moved to become his representative, but just months later the youngster found himself in a hospital bed wondering what was coming next.
Ricardo Califiori’s injury record: transfermarkt
In total, 347 days passed between Calafiori’s injury and his return to competitive action for Roma’s Primavera side at the start of the 2019-20 campaign. It was at this point that his second career began.
“The journey was definitely the hardest thing I faced,” he told Roma TV following his recovery.
“I had a knee that was three times the size of the other one.”
It is important to point out that Calafiori only missed two games through injury last season and has since come into his own as a staple for a Bologna side that dazzled under Thiago Motta achieving Champion League qualification.
After what Calafiori has been through already in his career, there are plenty both in Italian football and the rest of the world who are happy to see him return on his undoubted potential.
Calafiori is now set for a big move and the journey has no doubt been long and hard but he is set to have a splendid career ahead and the best is hopefully yet to come.
