Sartor joined A.S. Roma in 2002 in a four-year contract, with Sebastiano Siviglia going in the opposite direction. The deal was almost a pure player exchange, with both players being tagged at about €9 million.[6][7][8] but failed to become a team regular, with just 12 appearances in 2002–03, being behind in pecking order to Aldair, Cafú, Vincent Candela, Christian Panucci, Walter Samuel and Jonathan Zebina, and starting four matches in the place of Cafú or accompanying the Brazilian as he moved up front to the midfielder position.