MY ACCOUNT
Tammy Abraham’s decision to move to Roma and ply his trade in Serie A is proving an inspired choice.
Surplus to requirements under Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea, the striker opted for a complete change of scenery last summer.
Thriving under Jose Mourinho, the 24-year-old is enjoying a new lease of life in the Eternal City and is nailed on to be in the next England squad.
Abraham will now want to force his way into Gareth Southgate’s starting line-up ahead of the World Cup.
With Thursday’s Europa Conference League trip to Vitesse next in the Londoner’s sights, we analyse how he has emerged as one of the continent’s finest No9s.
Stunning form
Abraham has quickly established himself as Roma’s main man and one of Serie A’s most in-form forwards.
After scoring four goals in his first 14 league games, the Englishman has netted nine goals in 11 matches, hitting a stunning purple patch since mid-December.
That has included three goals in two games against top-four hopefuls Atalanta plus strikes against AC Milan and Juventus.
Mourinho’s men have won seven of their past 15 league games and Abraham has found the back of the net in five of those successes.
The Giallorossi’s No9 is relishing the responsibility of being the star striker at the Stadio Olimpico.
He recently said: “Rome is my home, I fell in love with this club from day one. The most important matter is doing well for this club. We need to build on this and keep going.”
Embracing the change
It was not smooth sailing from day one for Abraham who has admitted to being homesick early on.
But the former Swansea and Aston Villa loanee has tried to embrace the culture and already has a good relationship with Roma’s ultras — videos of him singing along to their club song certainly help.
And like many young Englishmen in the modern game, it was a desire to get away that saw him move to the Italian capital.
Abraham explained: “I got to the point that I needed to leave and explore.
“All I knew was Chelsea. It’s nice to explore, learn a different culture and a different language. It’s different, but I am enjoying it.”
The international scene
It was a surprise back in September when Abraham was initially left out of the England squad for the October World Cup qualifiers, only to be called up a week later.
For Roma, Abraham had scored four goals in nine games, while Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins was included despite not opening his account for the season at the time.
Southgate had also insisted just a month earlier that he would have a close eye on both the Roma forward and AC Milan centre-back Fikayo Tomori.
When he did play against Andorra, Abraham scored, and spoke of his desire for more opportunities in an England shirt.
“Hopefully my performance shows I am clearly doing the right things,” he said.
“Hopefully I can keep going and keep pushing. For me, I was disappointed to miss out [on Euro 2020] but I am playing every week. It’s a tough squad to get into.”
Climbing the pecking order
Abraham kept his spot in Southgate’s plans for the November games with Albania and San Marino, finding the net in the 10-0 thrashing of the minnows.
Since then, he has gone from strength-to-strength at the Stadio Olimpico while other English strikers have struggled.
Watkins has only recently ended a seven-game goal drought, injury-plagued Dominic Calvert-Lewin has failed to find the net since last August and Marcus Rashford cannot even get in Manchester United’s side, leaving the door wide open for Abraham.
Harry Kane will always be England’s first choice when fit, but the Roma man is in the perfect position to establish himself as the back-up.
With 20 goals in all competitions this term, no English striker has more across Europe’s top five leagues.
But more than four years since he was first called up, Abraham has only started two games for the Three Lions.
This month’s friendlies against Switzerland and Ivory Coast offer a great chance to improve on that tally very soon.
