The action in this shot is clearly occurring out of frame to the left, which I've cropped. (Though it could be seen in shot 0992.) Indeed this shot would not have made the cut were it not for the guy in goal on the right. I have better, closer and clearer shots of him, but they're at best side on. This is the closest I have to a "good" front on shot, or as good as ISO 1000 allows.

That is Alessandro Florenzi, defender #42. (No, I doubt that he's the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything.) Born in Roma on 11 March 1991 (making him 33 when this shot was taken, and therefore an "old man" in football terms), he went through the AS Roma Youth Academy, captaining the Primavera team to a title in 2011, and going on to captain the senior squad. Back in those days AS Roma could actually make the Champions' League, where he scored a goal against Barcelona in 2015. Were there any justice in the world he would have been a one club player (outside of a loan period in his formative years) and sliding gracefully into his sunset years as a club legend, a local boy made good. (Let us for a moment ponder how depressing it is that a 33 year old is regarded as being in the twilight of his career. OK, let's not dwell on it.) So what the hell is he doing in enemy colours?

Two words. Paulo. Fonseca.

Between 2019 and 2021 AS Roma was "blessed", and I use that word in the most sarcastic sense possible, to have Fonseca as its manager. In 2019, Florenzi had taken over the captaincy from another born and bred Roman, Daniele De Rossi after the latter's retirement. (Somewhat enforced after AS Roma decided not to renew his contract, but I digress.) Ironic twist; as of 2024, the very same De Rossi has returned as Roma's manager. In business it's not unreasonable to hope that companies which punt you out of a livelihood go and rot in Hell. But in football, goodbyes aren't always forever. Though on a personal note, hopefully Fonseca's was.

So here we are in 2019, Florenzi as captain, Fonseca as manager. And they did not get on. At all. By January 2020, in the middle of the season, Fonseca had ostracised Florenzi and shunted him off on loan to Valencia. Yeah, because your 28 year old team captain with 227 fricking appearances under his belt requires match experience in another league. Sure.

And he never returned. He went to Paris Saint-Germain for a season where he would have needed to learn French (surely a punishment that far exceeds whatever playing "crimes" Fonseca thought he had committed), before being loaned to, and finally sold to, AC Milan in 2021.

Now granted Florenzi was not playing at his best in this period. So, maybe there was fault on both sides. Or maybe Florenzi needed to be cut loose, right?

There's just one problem with that theory. Florenzi's successor as captain was a striker named Edin Džeko. And by 2021 what had happened? Džeko had been ostracised by Fonseca and was reported as training by himself. In August 2021 he was sold to the other Milanese team, Inter Milan.

If I may paraphrase Oscar Wilde: "To lose one captain, Mr. Fonseca, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness." So at the end of 2021 Fonseca himself was finally, oh finally dumped in favour of "The (not quite) Special (enough) One", José Mourinho.

The tale is not quite over, for the word at the time of writing is that Fonseca is going to become the manager of AC Milan next year. I don't hate AC Milan. They're rivals, but I don't hate them. I CERTAINLY don't hate them THAT much.

So you can imagine what will happen to Florenzi then. Because of his "advanced" age he's supposedly just a backup player now, though in reality he played 1,730 minutes in 31/38 matches in the 2023/4 season. He'll be a year older next year, and with a coach that he does not have a good history with, so this shot may be one of the last times we see him on the field... although I read a rumour that he may be heading to Bologna next year, so we'll see.

He only played the first half in this match, but that's because the match was intended to blood young talent and about half the team was swapped out at half time.