He worked for four years at Lazio and was instrumental in signing players such as Aleksandar Kolarov, Valon Behrami, Fernando Muslera, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Modibo Diakité, Ștefan Radu, Libor Kozák and Luis Pedro Cavanda.
[1] His most notable signings included Afriyie Acquah (who was signed as an unknown player at the age of 17), Abel Hernández, Josip Iličić (who was discovered during a UEFA Europa League qualifying game against Slovenian side Maribor), Michel Morganella, Javier Pastore, Matteo Darmian and Ezequiel Muñoz.
Over the course of three years, he rebuilt Roma and orchestrated the near-complete removal of all of the side's below-average players who carried high wages, previously brought in from the Franco Sensi era.
He then utilized the funds to purchase players Kevin Strootman, Gervinho, Morgan De Sanctis, Radja Nainggolan and Mehdi Benatia.
One year later, all five signings played solid seasons for the club; however, Benatia was later sold to Bayern Munich for €26 million, double the amount he was initially purchased for from Udinese.
With the funds, Sabatini managed to purchase three additional center-backs in the summer of 2014 and was able to snatch Juventus's main target in the transfer window, Juan Iturbe, from Verona.
In addition, his main achievements during the spell at AS Roma, were the acquisitions and subsequent resale, for substantial profits, of Alisson Becker and Momo Salah to Liverpool FC in 2018 and 2017, respectively.
[9] On 19 December 2023, Sabatini agreed to return to Salernitana, this time as a general manager in an attempt to change the club's fortunes as they were bottom-placed in the Serie A league table.