# 1997–98 AS Roma season

Associazione Sportiva Roma was reinvigorated under new coach Zdeněk Zeman, who recently had been coaching arch rivals Lazio. Zeman brought his attacking 4–3–3 with him, resulting in Roma scoring 67 goals, but also conceding 42, an extreme rarity in defensive-minded Italian football. Roma finished fourth, three places above Lazio in the table. That was the first time it had happened in five years, which delighted the Roma board, and Zeman stayed on for a further season. The season also saw the international breakthrough of former youth-team product Francesco Totti, who at 21 was ready for increased responsibility and captaincy, responding with 13 league goals from a position on the left-wing of the attack. Also noticeable was new signing Cafu's offensive skills as a right-wing back, granting him a reputation among the world's top wing backs.

## Players

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | AUT | Michael Konsel |
| 2 | DF | BRA | Cafu |
| 3 | DF | BRA | Zago |
| 4 | MF | ITA | Luigi Di Biagio |
| 5 | DF | FRA | Vincent Candela |
| 6 | DF | BRA | Aldair |
| 7 | FW | BRA | Paulo Sérgio |
| 9 | FW | ARG | Abel Balbo |
| 10 | FW | ITA | Francesco Totti |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 11 | MF | ITA | Eusebio Di Francesco |
| 12 | GK | ITA | Antonio Chimenti |
| 13 | DF | ITA | Fabio Petruzzi |
| 15 | MF | ESP | Iván Helguera |
| 16 | MF | ITA | Carmine Gautieri |
| 17 | MF | ITA | Damiano Tommasi |
| 19 | FW | GRE | Lampros Choutos |
| 21 | DF | RUS | Omari Tetradze |
| 24 | FW | ITA | Marco Delvecchio |

### Transfers

In :
| Pos. | Name | from | Type |
| DF | Cafu | Palmeiras | €7.60 million |
| FW | Paulo Sérgio | Bayer Leverkusen | €3.50 million |
| MF | Eusebio Di Francesco | Piacenza Calcio | |
| GK | Antonio Chimenti | Salernitana | |
| GK | Michael Konsel | Rapid Wien | |
| GK | Andrea Campagnolo | Cittadella | |
| DF | César Gómez | CD Tenerife | |
| DF | Giorgio Lucenti | Palermo F.C. | |
| DF | Iván Helguera | Albacete Balompie | |
| DF | Cristian Servidei | Lecce | |
| DF | Filippo Dal Moro | Empoli F.C. | |
| MF | Vágner | Santos Futebol Clube | |
| MF | Cristiano Scapolo | Bologna F.C. | |
| FW | Carmine Gautieri | Perugia Calcio | |
Out :
| Pos. | Name | To | Type |
| FW | Daniel Fonseca | Juventus | €4.70 million |
| DF | Amedeo Carboni | Valencia CF | €4.00 million |
| DF | Marco Lanna | UD Salamanca | end of contract |
| MF | Francesco Moriero | A.C. Milan | end of contract |
| MF | Jonas Thern | Glasgow Rangers | end of contract |
| GK | Giovanni Cervone | Brescia Calcio | |
| GK | Giorgio Sterchele | Bologna F.C. | |
| MF | Francesco Statuto | Udinese Calcio | |
| GK | Gianluca Berti | A.C. Reggiana | |
| GK | Giampaolo Di Magno | Carpi | |
| DF | Enrico Annoni | Celtic Glasgow | |
| DF | Lorenzo Stovini | Vicenza Calcio | |
| MF | Antonino Bernardini | Perugia Calcio | |
| FW | Martin Dahlin | Blackburn Rovers | €3.0 million |

#### Winter

In :
| Pos. | Name | from | Type |
| DF | Antonio Carlos | SC Corinthians | |
Out :
| Pos. | Name | To | Type |
| DF | Giorgio Lucenti | Empoli F.C. | loan |
| FW | Andrea Conti | Carpi | |
| DF | Francesco Colonnese | Internazionale | €1.50 million |

## Competitions
### Overall

| Competition | Started round | Final position | First match | Last match |
| Serie A | Matchday 1 | 4th | 31 August 1997 | 16 May 1998 |
| Coppa Italia | Round of 32 | Quarter-finals | 3 September 1997 | 21 January 1998 |
Last updated: 16 May 1998

### Serie A
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 2 | Internazionale | 34 | 21 | 6 | 7 | 62 | 27 | +35 | 69 | Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round |
| 3 | Udinese | 34 | 19 | 7 | 8 | 62 | 40 | +22 | 64 | Qualification to UEFA Cup |
| 4 | Roma | 34 | 16 | 11 | 7 | 67 | 42 | +25 | 59 | Qualification to UEFA Cup |
| 5 | Fiorentina | 34 | 15 | 12 | 7 | 65 | 36 | +29 | 57 | Qualification to UEFA Cup |
| 6 | Parma | 34 | 15 | 12 | 7 | 55 | 39 | +16 | 57 | Qualification to UEFA Cup |
* ↑ Fiorentina finished ahead of Parma on head-to-head points: FIO 1–1 PAR; PAR 1–2 FIO.

#### Results summary

| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away |
Last updated: 16 May 1998. Source: Competitive matches

#### Results by round

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 |
| Ground | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H |
| Result | W | D | W | D | W | D | L | W | D | W | W | L | D | L | D | D | D | W | L | W | W | W | W | L | W | D | D | W | L | W | L | W | D | W |
| Position | 2 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 |

#### Matches
### Coppa Italia
#### Quarter-finals
## Statistics
### Players statistics

| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Total | Total | Serie A | Serie A | Coppa | Coppa |
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| 1 | GK | AUT | Konsel | 34 | -47 | 29 | -37 | 5 | -10 |
| 2 | DF | BRA | Cafu | 36 | 1 | 31 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| 25 | DF | ITA | Petruzzi | 30 | 0 | 22+3 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 6 | DF | BRA | Aldair | 34 | 5 | 28 | 3 | 6 | 2 |
| 5 | DF | FRA | Candela | 38 | 2 | 32 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
| 17 | MF | ITA | Tommasi | 39 | 0 | 28+5 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 4 | MF | ITA | Di Biagio | 36 | 9 | 30 | 7 | 6 | 2 |
| 11 | MF | ITA | Di Francesco | 38 | 5 | 32+1 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
| 10 | FW | ITA | Totti | 36 | 14 | 30 | 13 | 6 | 1 |
| 7 | FW | BRA | Paulo Sérgio | 40 | 14 | 28+6 | 12 | 6 | 2 |
| 9 | FW | ARG | Balbo | 31 | 16 | 27+1 | 14 | 3 | 2 |
| 12 | GK | ITA | Chimenti | 9 | -8 | 5+3 | -5 | 1 | -3 |
| 30 | DF | BRA | Zago | 12 | 0 | 12 | 0 |
| 24 | FW | ITA | Delvecchio | 32 | 8 | 10+17 | 7 | 5 | 1 |
| 19 | MF | ITA | Gautieri | 22 | 3 | 7+11 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| 13 | MF | BRA | Vágner | 16 | 0 | 5+6 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 18 | DF | ESP | Helguera | 10 | 0 | 5+4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | DF | ITA | Dal Moro | 8 | 0 | 5+2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 15 | DF | ITA | Servidei | 9 | 0 | 4+2 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 16 | DF | ITA | Pivotto | 7 | 0 | 2+5 | 0 |
| 21 | DF | RUS | Tetradze | 7 | 0 | 1+6 | 0 |
| 22 | DF | ESP | Gomez | 3 | 0 | 1+2 | 0 |
| 8 | MF | ITA | Scapolo | 8 | 0 | 0+7 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 23 | GK | ITA | Campagnolo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 14 | FW | GRE | Choutos | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | DF | ITA | Lucenti | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | MF | ITA | Conti | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | GK | ITA | Ficarra | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* Source: http://calcio-seriea.net/presenze/1997/1129/

### Goalscorers

* Abel Balbo 14 (3)
* Francesco Totti 13 (1)
* Paulo Sérgio 12
* Marco Delvecchio 7
* Luigi Di Biagio 7 (2)