Riccardo Calafiori

About

Riccardo Calafiori (born 19 May 2002) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Premier League club Arsenal and the Italy national team.
Calafiori began his senior career with Roma. He featured sparingly for the club, and was loaned out to Genoa, before departing to Basel and later Bologna. In July 2024, he joined Premier League club Arsenal for an initial fee of £33.6 million.
Calafiori has represented Italy through various youth levels since 2017, and made his senior debut in June 2024. He played for Italy during UEFA Euro 2024, starting in all three group matches.

A youth product of Roma, Calafiori signed his first contract with them on 16 June 2018. Calafiori suffered a near career-ending injury to his knee on 2 October 2018. Calafiori made his professional as well as Serie A debut with AS Roma in a 3–1 away victory against Juventus on 1 August 2020. During the match, he won a penalty which was successfully converted by teammate Diego Perotti, and Calafiori also scored a goal with a strike from distance following a corner. However, the goal was disallowed, as the ball had previously gone out of play.
The following season, on 3…