The Aston Villa winger has endured a difficult start to his loan spell with AS Roma
Walter Sabatini
The winger has endured a difficult start to his loan spell(Image: Getty)
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An Italian football legend received a "wonderful message" from Aston Villa loanee Leon Bailey after a difficult start to his career in Serie A with AS Roma.
Bailey, who managed a single Premier League goal for Villa in 24 matches last season, picked up a muscle injury during his first training season with the club, ruling him out for two months.
On Saturday (October 18), fans of the Giallorossi got to see the Jamaican winger in competitive action for the first time as he made his debut with the club against Inter Milan.
“I received a wonderful message from Bailey [against Inter]. When he came on, it sparked a great deal of hope in me," legendary Italian sporting director Walter Sabatini told La Nuova Domenica Sportiva.
Sabatini was sporting director at the Stadio Olimpico from 2011 until 2016, growing a reputation for spotting talent with the club signing both Mohamed Salah, from Chelsea, and Alisson Becker, from Internacional, before selling both to Liverpool.
Head in hands for Villa star Leon Bailey
Villa loanee Leon Bailey got off to an unfortunate start with Roma.(Image: 2025 Luciano Rossi)
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Despite featuring for just 16 minutes in a 1-0 home defeat to the travelling Internazionale, Bailey did enough to make an impression on the former sporting director.
“He has the right quality to revitalise the Giallorossi attack. If he finds consistency, he could become a key player," Sabatini added.
The defeat was Roma's second of the season, blemishing their otherwise impressive start to the campaign, which sees them currently sit in fourth place, a point behind Milan.
And, while the club has enjoyed a bright start to the season, fans and critics alike have cited their lack of pace up front as an area for improvement — something Bailey can help with.
Throughout his nine years with Atalanta and several clubs before, head coach Gian Piero Gasperini is known to deploy pacey wide players to help his teams in the final third.
This tactic saw him and Atalanta lift the Europa League trophy in the 2023-2024 season with a 3-0 demolition of Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen, who completed an unbeaten Bundesliga campaign that season.
No doubt Gasperini will want to nurse Bailey back to full fitness as the winger's time at Villa Park has been plagued by injuries, forcing him to miss more than 20 competitive matches for the Villans.
The season-long loan, confirmed in August, is understood to include a buy option in the region of £20million.
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