Paulo Dybala arrives at Roma with Jose Mourinho facing a pivotal season

Paulo Dybala arrived late for Roma’s latest fixture of their pre-season tour of Portugal, taking his VIP seat at the Algarve stadium only at half time of the match against Sporting.

Dybala had been held up finalising details of his three-year contract with the Italian club. He soon gathered that no friendly in which Jose Mourinho is managing is entirely friendly.

Roma picked up the first of the game’s six yellow cards soon after Dybala had sat down, ahead of a series of tit-for-tat fouls. There had already been a confrontation around the perceived dive that earned Sporting a penalty, the opening goal in a see-saw 3-2 win for the Lisbon team.

By the end Mourinho, Roma’s coach, felt obliged to substitute Nicolo Zaniolo out of concern Zaniolo might be drawn into a second booking. The game ended with Jordan Veretout, the Roma midfielder, pushing and shoving his way into the referee’s notebook.

Mourinho had his fiery moments, in two vivid exchanges with the fourth official. But then Mourinho seldom visits Iberia without creating a headline or two. Last year, during his first summer as Roma head coach, he oversaw a friendly against Real Betis which featured three Roma men sent off, among the 11 cards shown to his players.

Sporting's Matheus Nunes, left, and Roma's Jordan Veretout during the friendly at the Algarve Stadium in Faro. EPA

Dybala will not have minded the display of competitive zest by the players who, as of Wednesday, he calls teammates. The Argentine, who came to the end of his seven-year stint at Juventus last month having allowed his contract to expire, is a significant capture for Roma, his arrival evidence of Mourinho’s capacity to attract stars.

That magnetism was part of the reason Roma made the Portuguese