Thijs Dallinga, Bologna's 25-year-old Dutch forward, finds himself at the centre of a club in active transition — not as a departure rumour, but as one of the few fixed points while the pieces shift around him. With Santiago Castro the subject of reported negotiations between Bologna and Roma, and Artem Dovbyk or another Roma forward potentially moving in the opposite direction, the rossoblù's attacking structure for 2025-26 is far from settled. Dallinga's position within it, however, looks more secure than it did a month ago.
The context matters. Castro's potential exit would remove Bologna's most prominent centre-forward option from last season, and it would do so just as Dallinga is building momentum. The Dutchman scored in Bologna's 2-0 pre-season win against Iraklis on July 26, with winger Rowe also on the scoresheet — the club's first victory of the summer. That result, under new head coach Tedesco, gave Dallinga a visible platform at exactly the right moment.
His numbers from the 2025-26 Serie A season — two goals and two assists across 22 appearances, with an average rating of 6.50 — tell a story of a player who contributed without dominating. An AI overall score of 56 out of a potential 100 suggests the ceiling is meaningfully higher than the floor he has shown. Whether Dallinga can close that gap depends partly on opportunity, and opportunity is now arriving by circumstance as much as by design.
Bologna finished the season eighth in Serie A with 55 points from 37 matches, a record of 16 wins, seven draws and 14 defeats. It is a mid-table position that reflects a squad still finding its identity under Italiano — and now, with Tedesco taking charge, undergoing another reset. The arrival of Argentine midfielder Mikel Amondarain from Estudiantes adds further evidence that the club is rebuilding its engine room, not just its attack.
For Dallinga, the summer's noise is clarifying rather than distracting. If Castro leaves, the Dutch forward enters pre-season not as a squad option but as the primary striker in Tedesco's plans. A pre-season goal does not guarantee a starting role, but it does establish intent — and at 25, with a potential rating that outstrips his current output, Dallinga has every reason to treat this window as the one that defines his Bologna career.