Roma's third Scudetto

18 years is a long time and for a club like Roma, having to wait that long to win a Scudetto is too much, especially if Lazio, during those years, is crowned champion. Those 18 years were not easy nor were they a progressive line of growth, they were complicated years that led to many changes but which finally allowed them to reach the long-awaited third Scudetto for the club.

Roma's last Scudetto before 2001

Roma's last Scudetto was in 1983, with a team that included Roberto Pruzzo (the team's top scorer that season), Giuseppe Giannini (legendary captain and number 10, as well as Totti's idol), Bruno Conti and Paulo Falcao. Not included was Swedish coach Nils Liedholm, in what was his second spell at the club (which would end up being four throughout his career) and Dino Viola, owner of Roma at that time. Together they formed a team that not only won the Scudetto but also reached the final of the European Cup in 1984, where they lost to Rush and Dalglish's Liverpool on penalties, after a 1-1 draw in regular time, a final that, by the way, was played at Roma's home ground, the Stadio Olimpico, even if that didn't help Roma to win.

The era after success

After many retirements and sales to other teams, by 1992, only Giannini remained from that great Roma team. In that same year, Dino Viola passed away, which marked the beginning of a difficult era for the Roma team, not only because of their own lack of success, but also because Lazio, their eternal city rival, was beginning to build something very good. Francesco Sensi took over from Viola in 1993, coinciding with the debut of a promising product of the Roma youth academy, Francesco Totti.

Francesco Totti

In his first years in the first team, Totti showed his great talent, but was unable to establish himself in the starting eleven because his idol, Giannini, blocked his path. In 1995, an injury to the captain meant that Totti was given a starting place, something that had been popularly demanded by Roma's fans. The youngster rose to the occasion and began to make his mark for the rest of his career at the club. In 1997, after several coaches who failed to get the team back on track and after several consecutive defeats to Lazio, Roma hired Zdenek Zeman, a Czech manager who had been in charge of Lazio six months earlier and was famous for his super offensive 4-3-3 formation.

The Czech's style of play was perfect for Totti, who was being supported by some of Zeman's new signings such as Cafu, Paulo Sergio and Eusebio Di Francesco. Although the team improved compared to previous seasons, Roma were unable to get above fourth place in the two years that Zeman was in charge. It should also be noted that this was the period in Serie A where Zinedine Zidane's and Alessandro Del Piero's Juventus, Ronaldo's Inter, Batistuta's Fiorentina and Pavel Nedved's Lazio all coincided.

Fabio Capello was the coach that brought Roma their third Scudetto

The season 2000-01

Sensi made the decision to fire Zeman and hire a manager with a considerably different style to the Czech, Fabio Capello. The Italian, however, had an enviable track record as a manager, having won everything with AC Milan and in one year in Spain with Real Madrid, winning La Liga. Capello's first signing was Vincenzo Montella, from Sampdoria, although he was actually a signing that had been closed during the Zeman era and with whom Capello never really had a good relationship. Marcos Assuncao, Hidetoshi Nakata, Francesco Antonioli and Cristiano Zanetti also arrived.

Capello's first season at Roma was not the best, in fact, they only finished sixth, worse than Zeman had done, and on top of that, Lazio won the Scudetto after 74 years, something that was very unpopular with the other team, to the point that the Italian manager was close to being fired. However, Sensi decided to give him another chance and this time, Capello tried to consolidate a 3-4-1-2, for which he brought in Emerson, Walter Samuel and Jonathan Zebina, in addition to the return of Abel Balbo. However, a piece was missing: Gabriel Batistuta.

Capello wanted the Argentine but Sensi was not willing to spend more money after the signings that had already been made. The manager embarked on a strategy in which he began to spread the rumour in the media that Roma were close to signing Batistuta, which became a topic of conversation in the Italian football world and a request from Roma fans. The pressure was such that Sensi paid 36 million euros for the striker, making him the most expensive signing in history of a player over 30 years old.

In the end, the starting eleven consisted of Antionioli in goal, Samuel, Zebina and Zago in the center of defense, Cafu and Candela as wing backs, Tommasi and Zanetti as central midfielders, Totti behind the strikers and Delvecchio with Batistuta in attack.

In the 2000-01 season, Roma's focus was on Serie A, so their performance in the other competitions left a little to be desired. The start of the season was quite solid and they maintained the lead practically all year, with Juventus and Lazio as their main rivals.

Between the end of April and the beginning of May, Roma faced Lazio and Juventus, in two matches that were decisive for their aspirations to win the Scudetto. Both games ended in a 2-2 draw, where Roma lost a 2-0 lead against Lazio, and with Montella scoring in the 91st minute to save a point against Juventus. Then on the 17th of June 2001, at the Stadio Olimpico, Roma welcomed Parma, beating them 3-1 with goals from Totti, Montella and Batistuta, to begin the celebrations of their third and last Scudetto to date.