Since bursting onto the scene with two assists in an emergency start against Cagliari in early 2015, Daniele Verde has gone from being the talk of Trigoria to the virtually forgotten man. While a couple of bad loan spells somewhat derailed Verde’s development, he put together a solid enough season last year to finally land in our top ten after many years of being on the fringe.

Number Nine: Daniele Verde

Age: 21

Position: RW, CF

Prior Club: Avellino

Current Club: Hellas Verona

Rank Last Year: N/A

Future Comparison: Iago Falque

Who is He?

Verde, who just turned 21 in June, was born in Naples, Italy. At the age of 14 he joined Roma’s youth setup, spending a few years in the primavera before going out on loan in 2015-16 to Serie A club Frosinone and Serie B club Pescara. Roma cut his loan spell at Frosinone short due to a lack of playing time, however his playing time didn’t increase much when he moved to Pescara for the second half of the year. He finished the season with a paltry three goals and one assist in 16 appearances across all competitions.

Last year Verde spent the full season on loan at Serie B club Avellino, where he excelled with consistent playing time. The Italian U-21 international had eight goals and five assists in 32 league appearances. With those numbers Verde managed a goal or an assist every 143 minutes, which was good enough to convince newly promoted Hellas Verona to take him on loan this summer with an option-to-buy with a counter option-to-buy for Roma sometime in the future.

What Can He Do?

This.

Verde is a decent right winger given that he’s pint-sized and isn’t the fastest or most athletic player on the pitch. He possesses a number of skills to offset his shortcomings though, including excellent dribbling, good penalty taking, decent free-kick taking, as well as the ability to pick out teammates.

What Can He Become?

He may not end up being the Italian Messi or even Lorezno Insigne, but Verde could end up being something like Iago Falque: a contributing member of a good squad, just not necessarily the star. Verde’s unlikely to become the right winger Roma’s desperately searching for overnight, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him back in Rome in a year or two as a solid backup for whoever the club brings in.