It has been just over a year since Fisayo Dele-Bashiru opted to leave Sheffield Wednesday.
The midfielder managed only 12 starts in League One before he rejected a new contract with the club and went onto join Turkish outfit Hatayspor.
Despite impressing with eleven goal contributions in the Super Lig, Sheffield Wednesday fans certainly won’t have expected him to earn a £5.1 million move to one of the biggest clubs in Italy.
Dele-Bashiru completed his switch to Lazio last month and went onto make his competitive debut in their 3-1 win over Venezia at the weekend.
The 23-year-old was even awarded a place in the starting line-up and remained on the pitch for the full 90 minutes.
Dele-Bashiru was awarded a 7.4 rating by sofascore – the fourth highest-rated player in the game.
The former Owls star had 58 touches, enjoyed a brilliant 96% pass accuracy, made one key passes, had two shots, completed 100% of his dribbles and made two tackles.
The only way Dele-Bashiru would have improved on his debut was to have claimed a goal contribution, but he certainly made a positive impact on their opening day victory.
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Dele-Bashiru makes ‘massive impression’ on Lazio debut
The Nigeria international really caught the eye of the Lazio fans, with the club taking to social media to hail his ‘massive impression’ on his Serie A debut.
Supporters flooded their comments with messages of support for Dele-Bashiru.
One fan wrote: “He really pumped me up, but let’s not put too much pressure on him.”
Another wrote: “Strength and powerful”.
One fan wrote: “Finally we’ve got a walking tower again! Hope Dele can win aerial too!”
Another fan compared him to Yaya Toure, while another called him a ‘tank’.
Sheffield Wednesday have their own promising stars
Dele-Bashiru looks set for a positive spell on Serie A and could well be playing European football next season if he can help them finish in the top seven.
Wednesday fans certainly wouldn’t have expected such a glow-up from the midfielder and who knows what would have happened if he had stayed at Hillsborough beyond last summer.
Danny Rohl is certainly building a very solid midfield himself though, and Svante Ingelsson’s own debut makes it extremely likely that he could become a key player for them.
It’s hard not to wonder what could have happened with Dele-Bashiru, but the Owls are on for something good this season and they can do it with the strength of the squad they have now.