Ajax Asked for Dovbyk, Then Bologna Got the Goal

Ajax asked Roma about Artem Dovbyk in June, then watched him score for Bologna in the 91st minute on September 6. New Ajax coach Míchel wanted the striker he had turned into La Liga’s Golden Boot winner at Girona. Roma wanted €23 million. Amsterdam never paid it.

Míchel Wanted His Girona No. 9 Back

Ajax hired Miguel Ángel Sánchez Muñoz, known as Míchel, on June 2 on a two-year deal running until 30 June 2028. Technical director Jordi Cruijff sold the appointment as the start of a squad rebuild, not a cameo.

Míchel is an ambitious and demanding coach. I am convinced he will instil his vision and his intensive way of working within our squad. Now that this key position has been filled, we can continue building towards strengthening the squad.

Jordi Cruijff, Ajax technical director, club announcement

That hire was Ajax’s bet on Míchel as head coach after Girona’s relegation ended his five-year run in Catalonia. The one attacking reunion that made sense sat in Rome. Dovbyk, 29, had scored the Golden Boot under Míchel in 2023-24, then left for Roma the next summer.

Italian transfer reporter Enrico Camelio said in June that Ajax were the only club that had asked, and that Míchel believed he could pull the striker north the way he had at Girona. Wout Weghorst was already on his way out. Ajax needed a centre-forward. Dovbyk was the one Míchel already knew.

WHAT MÍCHEL BUILT AT GIRONA

• League finish: Third in La Liga in 2023-24, behind Real Madrid and Barcelona.
• Team goals: Girona scored 85, two fewer than Real Madrid’s 87.
• Europe: That season put Champions League football into Estadi Montilivi for the first time.

Míchel told Ajax he wanted the club “back to where it belongs.” A proven No. 9 from his own dressing room was the cleanest way to start. Roma had a different number in mind.

The €23 Million Tag Roma Would Not Drop

Roma signed Dovbyk from Girona in August 2024 for a €30.5 million fixed fee plus €5.5 million in bonuses, with a 10 percent sell-on for Girona. Daniele De Rossi, then Roma’s coach, brought him in as the first Ukrainian in the club’s history. The first Serie A season was usable. The second was not.

Understat’s league log is the cleanest split of those two years, because it strips out cups and isolates the minutes Gian Piero Gasperini actually gave him.

DOVBYK’S LEAGUE LINE, SEASON BY SEASON

He scored 12 league goals from 32 matches in 2024-25 and still finished below a 14.35 xG. In 2025-26 he played 364 league minutes. Bologna’s own statement later blamed a long injury for the drop, not a sudden loss of touch. Gasperini had already moved on. Donyell Malen arrived on loan from Aston Villa on January 16, 2026, and Roma triggered the €25 million obligation to buy in May after the club locked up European football.

Roma’s farewell note still logged 63 appearances and 20 goals in two seasons. That is a decent two-year haul. It is not a €23 million one after 14 Serie A matches and three goals. TransferFeed’s summer tape had Roma quoting that exact figure to Ajax, while an Atletico Madrid bid of €20 million was treated as too low.

Who Else Circled After Ajax Asked?

Ajax were first to ask, not first to finish. By early July the file had become a loan hunt. De Rossi, now at Genoa, wanted the striker he had signed for Roma two summers earlier, and the path on the table was a temporary deal because the Giallorossi would not drop below €20 million on a sale. Transfer reporter Matteo Moretto had Dovbyk saying yes to Bologna on July 27, which is when the Amsterdam enquiry stopped mattering.

THE SUMMER THE AJAX FILE DIED

1. June 2, 2026: Ajax appoint Míchel on a contract through 30 June 2028.
2. June 22, 2026: Camelio says Ajax are the only club to have asked Roma about Dovbyk.
3. June 27, 2026: Wout Weghorst leaves Ajax on a free to FC Twente on a two-year deal.
4. July 2, 2026: Genoa, with De Rossi in charge, open a loan contact.
5. July 27, 2026: Dovbyk gives Bologna the green light on a paid loan with an option.
6. July 30, 2026: Roma and Bologna announce the move.
7. September 6, 2026: Dovbyk scores Bologna’s equaliser against Sassuolo in the 91st minute.

Trabzonspor’s €10 million offer never got close. Fiorentina were quoted in the €18 million to €20 million band, still below what Roma told Ajax. The pattern was the same in every conversation: Roma would listen to a loan, and they would not take a cheap sale. Ajax, rebuilding under a new coach and already short of a striker after Weghorst, were not the club to call that bluff.

A Loan to Bologna Closes the Race

Bologna announced a loan until 30 June 2027 with a buy option on July 30. He is the first Ukrainian in the club’s history. The same week Roma completed a permanent deal for Bologna forward Santiago Castro, so the traffic went both ways along the Emilia-Rome corridor. Domenico Tedesco, Bologna’s coach, had already spoken to Dovbyk before the medical.

The official statements name the formula and stop there. They do not print a loan fee or a strike price on the option. Figures of €3 million for the loan and about €18 million to make it permanent circulated as the deal closed, and they never appeared on either club site.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The contract: Temporary deal through 30 June 2027, with an option to buy.
• The coach: Tedesco personally sold the move after a call, according to the closing reports from the talks.
• The record Roma listed: 63 games, 20 goals, then a public goodbye.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The option fee: Club statements do not state a number.
• An Ajax bid: The public record shows an enquiry, not a filed offer that Roma rejected in writing.

For Roma the loan is a parking place, not a recoup of the Girona outlay. For Ajax it is the end of the reunion. For Bologna it is a low-risk look at a striker who, when fit, still shoots at a Golden Boot clip.

Marcos Leonardo Fills the Hole in Amsterdam

Ajax did not wait on Roma’s price. In July the club announced Brazilian striker Marcos Leonardo from Al-Hilal, the centre-forward they actually put on the books while Dovbyk packed for Emilia. Weghorst had already chosen Twente, and Kasper Dolberg’s future had been in doubt since June talks with Midtjylland. The attack Míchel inherited was not going to stand still for a €23 million standoff.

That is the quiet part of the race Ajax joined. Asking for Dovbyk told Roma that Míchel still trusted the player. Signing Leonardo told everyone else that Amsterdam would not finance Roma’s loss. A 29-year-old coming off 364 league minutes is a coach’s bet. A €23 million cheque is a board’s bet. Only one of those was on the table in June, and Ajax never wrote it.

Míchel still has Daley Blind, who followed him from Girona after 108 appearances there, and Donny van de Beek, who played 37 times under him in Spain. The staff around him is Spanish. The No. 9 from that Girona side is not.

Dovbyk’s 91st-Minute Answer at Dall’Ara

He needed 21 minutes against Sassuolo. Bologna were chasing a 2-1 deficit at the Dall’Ara when Tedesco threw him on. Marco Libra’s shot was saved. Dovbyk put in the rebound in the 91st minute for 2-2, Bologna’s first league point of Tedesco’s season. Roberto Piccoli had already scored. Josh Doig and Vasilije Adzic had put Sassuolo in front twice.

https://x.com/SerieA/status/2096658378290298921

He then punched the corner flag. After the match he said the goal meant a lot because he was back from a bad injury, that he had worked to reach that moment, and that one point was still not enough. He also said he had not been at 100 percent at the start of the season and was fine now. Tedesco has used him as a closer, not as the starting nine, and the first Bologna goal arrived in that role.

xG on the night sat with the finish: Understat has him at 1.03 xG across 76 minutes in three league games, and the Sassuolo strike was the one that landed. The drought he talked about was last season’s hip-to-hamstring lay-off and Gasperini’s bench, not a year of missed sitters. Girona’s 24-goal season still sits one line above the Roma collapse on the same sheet.

Roma still hold his registration. Bologna hold an option through next June. Ajax hold the coach who made him a Golden Boot winner, and the enquiry from June is closed.