Fans go wild as Evan Ferguson bags four in friendly win for Roma
Evan Ferguson’s move to Roma has given a lot of Irish soccer fans renewed optimism about the Bettystown man’s career.
After breaking through as a 14-year old at Bohemians to climbing up the ranks at Brighton and bursting onto the Premier league scene and eventually scoring a hat-trick as an 18-year old, Ferguson has always been one of the highest touted Irish soccer talents in a long time.
However since that breakthrough in 2023 Ferguson’s career hasn’t followed the trajectory many hoped for. The forward suffered with injury and after the hiring of Fabian Hürzeler as Brighton manager, Ferguson struggled for minutes. A loan move to West Ham and reuniting with old boss Graham Potter gave fans hope but Ferguson failed to make a mark in London in the second-half of last season.
Evan Ferguson scores in the pre-season friendly against Uni Pomezia. Pic: Luciano Rossi/AS Roma via Getty Images
That’s lead to Ferguson’s decision to move away from England and with this move to Roma, there’s a lot of signs that this could rejuvenate his career. His new manager, Gian Piero Gasperini has also just moved to Roma this summer off the back of a very successful spell at Atalanta.
He took Atalanta from mid-to-lower table Serie A side to Champions League regulars and Europa League winners. He did this off the back of developing struggling strikers to become some of the most exciting forwards in Europe. His students include the likes of Duvan Zapata, Luis Muriel, briefly Rasmus Højlund and Ademola Lookman.
Evan Ferguson during the pre-season friendly against Uni Pomezia. Pic: Luciano Rossi/AS Roma via Getty Images
This was thus an encouraging sign that Ferguson would get his mojo back and after his signing was announced on Tuesday, he played his first game for The Giallorossi in a friendly against Serie D side UniPomezia. While not the challenge Juventus, Napoli or Milan would pose it was nonetheless great to see Ferguson get off the mark, scoring four goals including a perfect hat-trick in a 9-0 win.
The clips of the goals went viral online and has many fans excited to see Ferguson line out in Serie A. One commenter on Twitter posted; ‘Doesn’t matter what standard of opposition it is, the touches and the finish is class.’
Another added; ‘Carlsberg don’t do debuts, but if they did….’, another; ‘Gasperini and promising striker it was always gonna be dangerous and people tried writing him off.’
Evan Ferguson scores in the pre-season friendly against Uni Pomezia. Pic: Luciano Rossi/AS Roma via Getty Images
It’s great to see Ferguson get off to a great start to life in Rome but fans can’t really judge him until the Serie A starts. Hopefully he can break into the side and from there take off. At only 20-years old, Ferguson has all the potential in the world but hasn’t had any luck, it’s about time he starts getting some fortune go his way.
