Roma's striker is the best Under-23 player of the first season in Serie A
"Rookie" is the term used in American sports to identify a beginner, a player in his first full season in the world of professional sports. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the term originated in the late 19th century as a misspelling of the word "recruit", which in turn assonates with "rock".
In European football, however, it is not possible to identify the category in the same way. The number of top-level competitions is increasing, and the rules of the market and the methods of access to the world of professional sport are completely different from those on the other side of the Atlantic.
We could have considered rookies, all debutants in the Serie A league: from Eddy Salcedo of Genoa, who debuted last August at just 15 years 10 months and 20 days, to Bacary Sagna of Benvento who when he first stepped on a field of Serie A, the Olympic in Rome, was 34 years 11 months 28 days. A gap of almost 20 years was frankly too wide, also because the rookie by definition is the freshman, and it is difficult to consider Sagna (but also Nani, Lucas Levia or Matuidi) a newbie. We have therefore considered for the award only the Under-23 players who debuted in our league this season.
Of the four names considered, two risk not continuing their career in Serie A. One is Enrico Brignola, who with Benevento (and Sagna) is relegated to Serie B after a single season, despite having played at his best his chances to show off at the age of 19 still to be accomplished also taking away the satisfaction of scoring 3 goals and serving 2 assists.
The other is Joao Cancelo, one of the best trios of the championship, especially since he won a place among the eleven Spalletti's holders in the second half of the season. Unfortunately the right of redemption that Inter enjoyed (which transfermarket values between 33 and 35 million euros) expired on May 31 and the player will rejoin Valencia waiting to know his future.
The third candidate was Antonin Barak, Udinese midfielder with a second striker past who surprised everyone with his presence in the goal zone (7, second only to Lasagna). After Jankto another excellent purchase from the Czech Republic and a guaranteed capital gain for the Friulian club.
But the one who actually beat the competition, guaranteeing himself the prize, comes from a country even further east: the rookie of the year according to the readers and the editorial staff of Ultimo Uomo is in fact the Turkish Cengiz Ünder of Roma (who, it's worth remembering, was announced like this).
Having arrived with the arduous task of replacing Salah, who in the meantime has become a serious candidate for the victory of the Golden Ball, the exterior from the Başakşehir in Istanbul was catapulted at the age of just 20 into a country, a team and an environment completely unknown to him.
"Moving abroad was a real shock. There are many more factors involved than I would have imagined. I left alone, without my family, without knowing anyone and without being able to communicate with others. I can't explain how frustrating it was at first," he said in an interview with the Guardian.
At the start of the season, his adaptation difficulties inevitably affected his performance in training and on the field, so much so that he only played 327 minutes in the first part of the season. Even in those few appearances, however, it was clear how hard he found it to become part of the team and understand the directives of Di Francesco, whose philosophy of offensive football was one of the reasons why Ünder decided to move to Roma.
With the team competing in the Champions League, but not managing to take off in the championship, there were critical voices, especially against Monchi, guilty of not having adequately replaced Salah, since the first goal of Ünder, Schick and Defrel, that are theoretically the three substitutes of the Egyptian, arrived only in February, when the Turkish scored the goal worth three points against Verona.
From that moment on, however, he managed to unlock himself once and for all thanks to the improvements made throughout Roma, with Di Francesco able to propose the tactical adjustments needed to promote the characteristics of his players. Ünder is perhaps one of those who has benefited most from the softening of the positions of the former Sassuolo technician, thanks to his constant work but also to the progressive adaptation to the new life in Italy and Rome.
But according to his own statement, Ünder likes to "deny the others" and so, in the second half of the season he literally transformed himself, starting to draw on a wider range of solutions and consequently to make his game more unpredictable, until then he was depending too much on dribbling and on his will to try plays often too complicated even for a footballer of his quality.
The goal in Verona was followed by another 6 in the league, all very heavy from the point of view of the classification, and one in the Champions League, in Ukraine against Shakhtar which earned the qualification in the quarters, for the rule of away goals. He finally managed to express in the Giallorossi shirt the ball-less and goal-attacking qualities that had first allowed Başakşehir to touch the Turkish title and then convinced Monchi to take him to Rome, as well as a rare determination and technical awareness in such a young player.
Often the Rookie of the Year is expected to have a future as a franchise player and these could be exactly the expectations of Ünder for the coming seasons. The Turkish has managed to impose himself in a team that is opening a new cycle and with the most representative players all over 30 years of age, it may be he who has to take the inheritance and ferry the club into a new chapter of its history. After all, one who calls himself Gengis Khan can only aspire to the conquest of Roma.
Source: Ultimo Uomo
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