He made his debut in Serie A on 10 May 2003 against Torino, but played the season 2003-04 in US Triestina on loan. Back to Roma in 2004-05, he scored the second goal in the victory in the derby played on 26 February 2006; that victory broke the record of most consecutive wins in Serie A. In the following season he was expected to be one of the best player of Roma, in fact he was also capped for the first time by Italy on 15 November 2006 for a friendly against Turkey. Unfortunately an injury forced him to stay away from the fields for several months. Despite this he played as regular during the 2007 U-21 Championships held in the Netherlands and was also named in the 'UEFA Team of the tournament'. He scored an excellent free kick in this tournament against the Czech Republic. He scored two long range goals in the first two matches of the season 2007-08 with AS Roma against Palermo and Siena, and thus was called up to Roberto Donadoni's Azzurri for the fundamental games against France and Ukraine.
