Man Utd will go up against a former academy goalkeeper who started a rap career after leaving Old Trafford.
A former Manchester United academy player is heading back to Old Trafford on Tuesday night, more than ten years after playing alongside stars like Jesse Lingard and Adnan Januzaj.
Pierluigi Gollini, who spent two years at United from 2012 to 2014, is expected to start as goalkeeper for Roma when they face Michael Carrick’s team in the Champions League.
The 31-year-old is Roma’s backup goalkeeper, but with Mile Svilar still recovering from a broken finger, coach Gian Piero Gasperini will likely give Gollini the chance to play on Tuesday.
It’s a special night for the Italian keeper, who joined United’s youth setup from Fiorentina at age 17 and played under Paul McGuinness with the under-18s. He later helped the under-21 team win the Premier League title alongside Lingard, Januzaj, and Tom Lawrence.
Although offered a new contract, Gollini chose to leave and signed with Italy’s Hellas Verona in 2014. He later explained, “I wanted to grow and become a first-choice goalkeeper. Manchester United gave me a new deal, but I felt it was better to go back to Italy and join a big club like Verona. I also believe the Italian way of goalkeeping is the best.”
After two years at Verona, Gollini came back to England with Aston Villa in 2016, then joined Atalanta on loan for the 2017-18 season, which later became permanent. He played over 100 games for Atalanta under Gasperini, who is now his coach at Roma, and even earned a cap for Italy in 2019. He also had loan spells with Tottenham, Fiorentina, Napoli, and Genoa before settling at the Stadio Olimpico.
“I haven’t played much recently, but in training and with my teammates, I still feel involved,” Gollini said after Roma’s recent game against Cagliari. “Football moves fast. Sometimes you don’t play for months and people think you’re finished. But if you work hard every day, you know your worth, even if you’re not on the pitch.”
Off the field, Gollini is also a music lover and goes by the stage name Gollorius. In 2018, he released a rap single called “Rapper coi guanti” (Rapper with Gloves) and donated all proceeds to renovate a football pitch near his hometown.
“I did this because my story is like many kids who dream of playing football and making it from the streets,” he shared with the Champions Journal.