{"id":1116874,"date":"2019-11-25T17:19:22","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T17:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1116874"},"modified":"2019-11-25T17:19:22","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T17:19:22","slug":"chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Smalling follows in David Beckham&#8217;s footsteps as Roma renaissance continues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Given the early promise he showed at Fulham all those years ago, it&#8217;s fair to say Chris Smalling&#8217;s career hasn&#8217;t quite lived up to expectation.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sure, the centre-back has lifted two Premier League titles, an FA Cup, a League Cup and a Europa League trophy during his time at Manchester United, while he&#8217;s also picked up 31 caps for England.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How has Smalling emulated Beckham? Five key things to know&#8230;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Smalling has struggled for form with Man Utd in recent years.<\/li>\n<li>He was loaned out to Roma this season after Man Utd signed Harry Maguire.<\/li>\n<li>The 30-year-old ranks second at the club for aerial duels won (41) and interceptions made (17) in Serie A.<\/li>\n<li>Smalling also notched his second goal of the season during Roma&#8217;s 3-0 win over Brescia.<\/li>\n<li>This makes him the first Englishman to score at least two goals in a single Serie A season since David Beckham (2008\/09).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"background-color: transparent; display: block; padding: 0; max-width: 700px;\" title=\"Audioboom player\" src=\"https:\/\/embeds.audioboom.com\/posts\/7430941\/embed\/v4?image_option=full\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nBut at 30 years old, is this the sheer level of success Smalling envisaged when he joined Man Utd? After all, Sir Alex Ferguson himself hand-picked him as one of the key players to lead the club forward after his departure.<\/p>\n<p>But for centre-backs, 30 is nowhere near over the hill \u2013 just ask John Terry, or current Brazil international and PSG stalwart Thiago Silva, who is still going strong at 35.<\/p>\n<p>And Smalling is currently doing a good job of reinventing himself on loan with Italian giants Roma, where he&#8217;s made more blocks (9) than any other player at the club in Serie A this season, while he ranks second for aerial duels won (41) and interceptions made (17).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Know Your Squad: \u2018De Bruyne?!\u2019 Manchester City fans quizzed\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8PGx6Im8utU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to <a href=\"http:\/\/sqwk.at\/Squawka-Sub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Squawka\u2019s Youtube channel here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But throughout his career, Smalling has had an understated habit of popping up with goals \u2013 a habit which was on show once again as Roma beat Brescia 3-0 at the weekend, with the defender bagging his second goal of the season and notching an assist.<\/p>\n<p>This makes Smalling the first English player to score two goals in the same Serie A season since David Beckham for AC Milan way back in 2008\/09.<\/p>\n<p>Not bad for a player who was once mistakenly called &#8220;Mike&#8221; by Louis van Gaal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Given the early promise he showed at Fulham all those years ago, it&#8217;s fair to say Chris Smalling&#8217;s career hasn&#8217;t quite lived up to expectation. Sure, the centre-back has lifted two Premier League titles, an FA Cup, a League Cup and a Europa League trophy during his time at Manchester United, while he&#8217;s also picked&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":1115213,"parent":0,"menu_order":4161,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Chris Smalling is reinventing himself in Serie A with Roma and bagged his second goal of the season against Brescia at the weekend.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1116874","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.0 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chris Smalling follows in David Beckham&#039;s footsteps as Roma renaissance continues | Squawka | EN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chris Smalling is reinventing himself in Serie A with Roma and bagged his second goal of the season against Brescia at the weekend.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chris Smalling follows in David Beckham&#039;s footsteps as Roma renaissance continues\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chris Smalling is reinventing himself in Serie A with Roma and bagged his second goal of the season against Brescia at the weekend.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Squawka | EN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SquawkaFootballNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/11\/12110207\/chris-smalling.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"682\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@squawka\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Jones\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dcaaeb201e0e17d78934592371278e5c\"},\"headline\":\"Chris Smalling follows in David Beckham&#8217;s footsteps as Roma renaissance continues\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-25T17:19:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":380,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/media.squawka.com\\\/images\\\/en\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/12110207\\\/chris-smalling.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\\\/\",\"name\":\"Chris Smalling follows in David Beckham's footsteps as Roma renaissance continues | Squawka | EN\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/media.squawka.com\\\/images\\\/en\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/12110207\\\/chris-smalling.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-25T17:19:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"Chris Smalling is reinventing himself in Serie A with Roma and bagged his second goal of the season against Brescia at the weekend.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/media.squawka.com\\\/images\\\/en\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/12110207\\\/chris-smalling.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/media.squawka.com\\\/images\\\/en\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/12110207\\\/chris-smalling.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":682,\"caption\":\"Chris Smalling of AS Roma Roma 2-11-2019 Stadio Olimpico Football Serie A 2019\\\/2020 AS Roma - SSC Napoli Foto Andrea Staccioli \\\/ Insidefoto\\\/Sipa USA\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Squawka\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Chris Smalling follows in David Beckham&#8217;s footsteps as Roma renaissance continues\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Squawka | EN\",\"description\":\"Football News, Stats, and More...\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dcaaeb201e0e17d78934592371278e5c\",\"name\":\"Chris Jones\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1629af3d80ca046be2a55c38052128018b2b9c196ce8d6314bdff7d7ce9f366e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1629af3d80ca046be2a55c38052128018b2b9c196ce8d6314bdff7d7ce9f366e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1629af3d80ca046be2a55c38052128018b2b9c196ce8d6314bdff7d7ce9f366e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chris Jones\"},\"description\":\"Gold Standard NCTJ-qualified sports journalist from England. Covered Major League Soccer, USMNT, Premier League and more since 2018, with a focus on data-driven content. Previously published at: CaughtOffside , Tifo Football\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.squawka.com\\\/en\\\/author\\\/chris-smith\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chris Smalling follows in David Beckham's footsteps as Roma renaissance continues | Squawka | EN","description":"Chris Smalling is reinventing himself in Serie A with Roma and bagged his second goal of the season against Brescia at the weekend.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Chris Smalling follows in David Beckham's footsteps as Roma renaissance continues","og_description":"Chris Smalling is reinventing himself in Serie A with Roma and bagged his second goal of the season against Brescia at the weekend.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/","og_site_name":"Squawka | EN","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SquawkaFootballNews\/","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":682,"url":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/11\/12110207\/chris-smalling.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@squawka","twitter_misc":{"Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/"},"author":{"name":"Chris Jones","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/dcaaeb201e0e17d78934592371278e5c"},"headline":"Chris Smalling follows in David Beckham&#8217;s footsteps as Roma renaissance continues","datePublished":"2019-11-25T17:19:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/"},"wordCount":380,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/11\/12110207\/chris-smalling.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/","url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/","name":"Chris Smalling follows in David Beckham's footsteps as Roma renaissance continues | Squawka | EN","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/11\/12110207\/chris-smalling.jpg","datePublished":"2019-11-25T17:19:22+00:00","description":"Chris Smalling is reinventing himself in Serie A with Roma and bagged his second goal of the season against Brescia at the weekend.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/11\/12110207\/chris-smalling.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/11\/12110207\/chris-smalling.jpg","width":1024,"height":682,"caption":"Chris Smalling of AS Roma Roma 2-11-2019 Stadio Olimpico Football Serie A 2019\/2020 AS Roma - SSC Napoli Foto Andrea Staccioli \/ Insidefoto\/Sipa USA"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/chris-smalling-follows-in-david-beckham-footsteps-roma\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Squawka","item":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Chris Smalling follows in David Beckham&#8217;s footsteps as Roma renaissance continues"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/","name":"Squawka | EN","description":"Football News, Stats, and More...","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/dcaaeb201e0e17d78934592371278e5c","name":"Chris Jones","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1629af3d80ca046be2a55c38052128018b2b9c196ce8d6314bdff7d7ce9f366e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1629af3d80ca046be2a55c38052128018b2b9c196ce8d6314bdff7d7ce9f366e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1629af3d80ca046be2a55c38052128018b2b9c196ce8d6314bdff7d7ce9f366e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chris Jones"},"description":"Gold Standard NCTJ-qualified sports journalist from England. Covered Major League Soccer, USMNT, Premier League and more since 2018, with a focus on data-driven content. Previously published at: CaughtOffside , Tifo Football","url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/author\/chris-smith\/"}]}},"yoast_title":"","yoast_description":"Chris Smalling is reinventing himself in Serie A with Roma and bagged his second goal of the season against Brescia at the weekend.","yoast_keyword":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1116874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1116874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1115213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116874"},{"taxonomy":"news-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-category?post=1116874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}