What a job for Roma: World and European champions for only 17 million

When you don’t have money, you are usually stuck with what you have and occasionally you can strike a good deal. Enter Roma. The Italian club is in financial crisis for the second year in a row, yet they still pull out great deals. Last season it was Nemanja Matić, Paulo Dybala, Andrea Belotti and Ola Solbakken all on free transfers, and in 2024, they signed Evan Ndicka and Houssem Aouar from Frankfurt and Lyon, both free agents. And after a period of silence and striker search, since Tammy Abraham sustained a serious injury, Roma have finally managed to capture two great players, for a combined fee of only 17 million euros.

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According to L’ Equipe, PSG duo Renato Sanches and Leandro Paredes are packing their bags as they are travelling to the Eternal city. The Argentinian, currently a World champion after Qatar 2022 will cost only 2.5 million upfront, and with performance-related bonuses that could rise to 4.5m. That is still smaller fee then what Juventus paid last season. The Turin giant took him on a loan, but had to pay 5 million and the option to buy was 22.6 million, which they didn’t activate since his season with Juventus was not a memorable one. But, with financial restrains, Roma decided to risk and take him to Jose Mourinho, while PSG probably agreed to such a low fee, since nobody else was interested to take Paredes, and he is in his last year of contract anyway.

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Former European champion in 2016 with Portugal is also coming for a great sum. The 25-year-old Portuguese will be on loan until the end of the season, but if he plays in 60% of the games, the Gillarossi will be obliged to buy him for 15 million euros. If that ends up to be the case, PSG will have no profit from Renato Sanchez, but also no minus (unlike Paredes), since they got him last year from Lille for the same amount. The Portuguese was a big whish for AC Milan last season, but opted to come to PSG and follow his former coach and director, Christophe Galtier and Luis Campos. Now, he will still go back to Serie A, but only for Roma. Paredes is coming with him and after bad seasons in PSG and Juventus, this is probably his last chance to do something in the Top 5 European leagues. With these two moves, Roma basically covered the imminent departure of Matić to Rennes, while the strike search is still on.