Junior Messias, Genoa's 35-year-old forward, delivered another influential performance as the Grifone claimed a 2-1 victory away to Lecce, securing a third consecutive Serie A win and lifting Daniele De Rossi's side to 13 points from ten matches.
The significance of that run cannot be overstated for a club that opened the season with five defeats in ten games. Genoa sit eleventh, but the trajectory has shifted sharply. Three straight wins suggest something has clicked, and Messias — carrying two goals and an assist across nine league appearances this season — sits at the centre of it.
His average rating of 7.27 in Serie A this campaign is the number that frames his contribution most honestly. For a forward of his age, sustaining that level of output across nine matches is not a given; it reflects consistent involvement in the moments that decide games rather than peripheral activity. De Rossi has spoken openly about the attacking options at his disposal, noting the potential of pairing Osmajic with Colombo, yet Messias continues to make the selection conversation complicated in the best possible way.
De Rossi, whose Genoa side has now turned a difficult start into something more coherent, was direct after the Lecce result: "Il Genoa ora è tanta roba, ma non dobbiamo grattarci la pancia" — the team is something now, but they cannot afford complacency. It is the kind of warning a coach issues when he trusts the group but fears the drift that follows momentum.
Messias's AI overall of 69 out of 100 reflects a player operating competently within his profile rather than exceeding it — a reliable contributor rather than a match-winner in isolation. But reliability at 35, in a side still finding its shape under a relatively new coach, carries its own value. Genoa's attacking output of ten goals in ten league matches is modest; the fact that Messias accounts for two of them and has created a further one means he is touching a disproportionate share of what the team produces going forward.
The next test will reveal whether this three-game sequence represents a genuine shift or a favorable run of fixtures. What Messias has already demonstrated is that age has not blunted his usefulness to De Rossi's system.