Pellegrini Back-Heel Against Hellas Verona Named Serie A Goal of the Month

With seven goals and two assists in all competitions, the captain's armband draped around his arm, and a new contract in tow, it's safe to say that Lorenzo Pellegrini is enjoying the best stretch of his young career. Pellegrini has flashed moments of brilliance throughout his career, namely his six-goal and six assist campaign for Sassuolo in 2016-2017, his nine assists for Paulo Fonseca during the 2019-2020 season, and his seven goals and six assists last year, but I'm not sure we've ever seen the 25-year-old Roman play with this level of aggression, intelligence, and confidence.

Roma fans have been clamoring for Pellegrini to take the reins for years now and with his scintillating form to begin the season, he is slowly but surely becoming the unquestioned leader of his boyhood club. And when you throw in the goal he just scored for Italy in the UEFA Nations League against Spain, he's working his magic at the international level as well.

And, wouldn't you know it, all those good efforts haven't gone unnoticed. Earlier today, Serie A tipped Pellegrini's stunning backheel goal against Hellas Verona as the league's Goal of the Month.

While it came in a losing effort, Pellegrini pulled off one of the more stunning backheel goals you'll ever see, running onto Rick Karsdorp's low cross into the box and whipping the ball past the hapless keeper. The most impressive part of this goal, other than the fact that it came in a torrential downpour, was that Pellegrini appeared to almost overrun Karsdorp's ball but had the presence of mind and spatial awareness to wrap the back heel of his trailing leg on the ball, somehow beating the keeper at the near post.

Pellegrini is in the midst of a career year, but no matter how many goals he goes on to score this season, he'll have trouble topping this jaw-dropper. And when taken with the news that Annamaria Serturini was named Serie A Femminile Player of the Month by the Player's Association, September was a banner month for Roma.