Report: Roma Agree To Three-Year Contract With Nahitan Nández

If you’ve been following the Giallorossi rumor mill recently, you know that yet another squad overhaul seems to be in the cards for this summer. Daniele De Rossi’s comment that he wants more players like Gervinho certainly made my heart flutter (or was that a palpitation?), but considering that Florent Ghisolfi hasn’t been officially announced as Roma’s next DS and we’re not 100% sure what competition Roma will actually play in next season, it’s not surprising that we haven’t seen too many purported transfers come close to reality.

That has now reportedly changed, with LaRoma24 reporting that Nahitan Nández will be the first transfer of the summer for the Giallorossi:

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but it appears that Nández will be signing a three-year contract with Roma after leaving his current club, Cagliari, as a free agent. During his time in Cagliari, the 28-year-old Uruguayan international established himself as a jack-of-all-trades on the pitch; he has played as a right-back, a central midfielder, an attacking midfielder, and a winger since coming over to Cagliari from Boca Juniors in 2019. While the club’s biggest achievement during that time period is arguably their avoidance of relegation this season, Nández has certainly been worth the reported €16.2 million the Sardinian side paid for him; he’s racked up 164 appearances for Gli Isolani and established himself as an excellent crosser and a strong counterattacking threat.

The words “excellent crosses” undoubtedly just made the ears of Romanisti everywhere prick up like a dog hearing it’s time to go for a walk. Outside of January loanee Angeliño, Roma has been shockingly bereft of players who can cross this season. With many of Roma’s fullbacks likely to leave the club in the summer, bringing in a player like Nández could do wonders for Roma’s depth at right-back, not to mention providing the necessary depth a club like Roma needs to fight in multiple competitions simultaneously.

As I’ve said repeatedly over the years, while the moves for players of Paulo Dybala and Romelu Lukaku’s caliber are certainly necessary, it’s the moves for utility players and non-stars like Nahitan Nández that continuously make or break Roma’s hopes of returning to the Champions League. You need these kinds of players to be hungry, in good form, and available, and too often Roma has been unable to field enough players outside of their stars who fit that bill. Bringing in Nández could be a great first step in building out Roma’s depth this summer; the fact that he will be coming in as a free agent is even better news, as it lets Roma save its transfer dollars for a big fish along the lines of Atletico Madrid’s Samu Omorodion or Bologna and former Roma player Riccardo Calafiori.

We’ll have more on this if and when it becomes official, but make no mistake: rumors like these coming to light signal that the summer silly season is officially upon us, even if we’re still months away from July 1.