Torino forward Ché Adams scored as the granata came from behind to defeat Venezia 3-2 in the Coppa Italia round of 32, giving the 30-year-old a second consecutive competitive goal to open the new campaign and a degree of momentum heading into the Serie A season proper.
The timing carries weight. Adams finished 2025-26 with six goals and two assists across 33 Serie A appearances — a return that kept him functional without ever making him decisive. An average rating of 6.70 reflects a player who contributed without dominating, and an AI overall score of 62 out of 100 underlines the ceiling the data assigns him at this stage of his career. For a Torino side that conceded 63 goals and scored only 44 across a 38-match season — finishing 12th on 45 points — the forward line's inability to generate consistent threat was a structural problem, not merely an individual one.
That context makes the Coppa Italia goal more than a footnote. Adams needed to establish himself early in the new cycle, particularly with Torino's squad in flux. The club is active in the transfer market — a potential deal for Leeds United goalkeeper Lucas Perri signals investment in the squad — but director Petrachi has also acknowledged the need to sell before buying, with balance-sheet pressure shaping every decision. In that environment, a forward who scores goals, even in cup football, is harder to move on.
Leonardo Colucci's Torino face a new head coach — the club's bench has changed again — and Adams must now convince a fresh set of eyes that his six-goal season was a floor, not a ceiling. The Venezia goal does not resolve that question, but it opens the conversation on his terms rather than the club's.
At 30, Adams is not a project. He is a known quantity: mobile, technically reliable, capable of contributing in a system that asks its forwards to press and link rather than simply finish. The question is whether Colucci's setup will ask those things of him, and whether Adams can push his output beyond the modest numbers that defined last season.
Torino's summer will determine the frame around him. If reinforcements arrive and the team improves its goal return from 44, Adams benefits from better service and less isolation. If the squad stagnates, he risks another season of creditable but insufficient numbers. The Coppa Italia goal is a data point, not a verdict.