Roma to Offer Only Lowball Contracts to Key Veterans

Paulo Dybala and Lorenzo Pellegrini have entered the final months of their contracts with Roma and, while the team isn’t necessarily pushing them out the door, they’d have to agree to steep pay cuts to stay put, Mediaset reports.

The Argentine has the highest salary within the squad, thanks to a complex deal that compounded his base salary with the bonuses he earned along the way, and is pocketing €8.5M this season. Instead, the Italian midfielder is making nearly €7M.

Roma, which have been under scrutiny of UEFA for a few years at this point, have inevitably decided to trim their payroll, and, while its final tally will be determined by how the year goes, the new self-imposed cap will be about €4M, roughly half what Dybala and Pellegrini are earning now.

Zeki Celik and Stephan El Shaarawy are in the same situation, but their figures are more modest. Consultant Claudio Ranieri addressed the topic in a recent interview with Sky.

“We have to lower the wages bill for the club to survive. I think they have already spoken with the management. It’s not like we’re unwilling to meet their requests, but we need to make cuts. We’ll decide what to do based on what the pitch determines and the requests by the front office: if we reach an agreement, fine, if not, we’ll part ways.”

Our Take on Roma, Dybala, and Pellegrini

There’s still a chance they won’t leave, perhaps more in the second case, but declining performances and health of La Joya would make the split less painful than it would have been in previous years. It’d also solve a tactical conundrum, as he and Matias Soulé have never really thrived together.