Dybala Shines in Roma's Pre-Season Opener
Roma’s pre-season began with a formality on the scoreboard and a statement on the pitch. A 6-0 win over the Primavera side will not define Gian Piero Gasperini’s tenure, but the sight of Paulo Dybala gliding through the game with familiar authority will have felt like a small turning point.
This was not a gentle reintroduction. According to TuttoMercatoWeb, Dybala looked exactly like the player who dragged Roma through the tense final weeks of last season: sharp between the lines, ruthless around the box, and technically a level above everyone else on the pitch. He finished with two goals, an assist and a string of those rare, delicate touches that tend to separate friendly run-outs from serious auditions.
More important than the numbers was the way he moved. Dybala arrived for pre-season in notably strong physical condition, a detail that will not be lost on Gasperini, who has never hidden his belief: a fit Dybala changes everything. The coach has repeated it often enough. The caveat has always been the same—fitness record permitting.
On this evidence, the first box is ticked.
Dybala sharp, Dovbyk answers back
While Dybala lit up the game, he was not alone in sending a message. Artem Dovbyk, returning from the tendon problem that required surgery and wiped out much of his run-in last season, stepped back into the fold with the urgency of a man who knows the stakes.
He scored twice and could have had more. The movements were aggressive, the finishing instinct intact. For a player whose name has been floated as a potential sale to fund new arrivals, these weeks carry a different weight. Every training session, every friendly, is part audition, part defence of his place in the project.
Dovbyk’s response was clear: he intends to be more than a balancing figure on a spreadsheet.
Roma’s hierarchy continue to push on the market, with interest in players such as Crysencio Summerville shaping the conversation around who stays and who goes. That makes Dovbyk’s timing critical. As the club weighs up how to refresh the squad around its stars, a centre-forward returning from injury and scoring freely in pre-season forces a rethink.
For Gasperini, that is no bad problem. A Dybala in full flow and a fully recovered Dovbyk offer something Roma have lacked for too long: genuine attacking depth, not just names on a team sheet.
Pre-season friendlies are usually filed under “fitness exercises” and quickly forgotten. This one will not linger for the scoreline, but for the sight of two key forwards moving with conviction, shaking off doubts and, at least for now, insisting they still belong at the heart of Roma’s plans.
