"The 16-year-old was brought off the bench to make his club debut in the 80th minute of Roma's Italian Cup clash against Torino, and scored with his first touch for the Serie A side. He calmly rose to head the ball past Torino goalkeeper Alberto Paleari to level the scores at 2-2 in the 81st minute of their round-of-16 match on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT). Despite the young Aussie's eye-catching heroics, Torino clinched a 3-2 victory thanks to a 90th-minute goal from Emirhan Ilkhan."
""I'm happy about these very young players: one is 16 years old and it's an important process for him,'' Gasperini said. "He (Arena) is certainly a player who has a great competitive drive, despite his young age. He has a lot of energy to offer and he's not afraid to put himself out there. He's already playing for national youth teams.''"
Arena entered Roma's Italian Cup round-of-16 match against Torino in the 80th minute and scored with his first touch, heading past goalkeeper Alberto Paleari to level the game at 2-2. Torino later secured a 3-2 win with a 90th-minute goal from Emirhan Ilkhan. Born in Sydney, Arena holds dual citizenship and has represented both Australia and Italy at youth level. He progressed through Western Sydney Wanderers youth ranks, moved to Pescara where he debuted and scored at 16 years and 25 days, becoming the first 2009-born scorer in Italy and Pescara's youngest goalscorer, before signing for Roma in July 2025.
Read at ESPN.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]