The making of Romero: ‘I told him to keep it simple – so he fouled Cristiano’
Defender has come a long way from nervous debut against Juventus to living up to a potential £46m move
Cristian Romero was nervous – very nervous. It was October 2018, and Romero, then just 18, had yet to feature in a Genoa matchday squad when he was summoned by coach Davide Ballardini and told he was starting at Juventus.
It was too much for the Argentine to process, and his team-mate, former Tottenham and Queens Park Rangers midfielder Sandro, knew it. It was time to have a chat. “I told him, ‘Chill out, man, you’ve got no reason to worry – you just have to mark Cristiano Ronaldo today’,” Sandro says with a chuckle.
“I was kidding, of course. I just advised him to trust himself, to keep it simple on the ball, and to pass it to me if he needed because I would be around to help him.”
Message heeded? Not particularly. “Nine minutes into the first half, he got a yellow card for fouling Ronaldo. I was like, ‘Damn, Romero!’” Sandro says, laughing again. “But that was the only mistake he made that day. He had a great performance and didn’t look back after it. His development was outstanding for a lad who had arrived from Argentina on his own.”
It is a measure of the progress Romero made that, by the end of that season, Juventus had decided to sign him in a €20 million (£16.9 million) deal.
Now, after being named Serie A’s defender of the year, he is beginning to prove his value at Spurs after signing on a season-long loan, with an option to buy for an initial €50million with a further €5 million in add-ons (£46 million total). He was Tottenham’s best defender in the defeat by West Ham and man of the match in the midweek Carabao Cup win at Burnley. And while the €50 million fee might feel eye-watering for a player who is still a relative rookie, Sandro has no doubts that Romero, 23, will be worth it.
“Romero and Tottenham will be a perfect match,” Sandro says. “He’s the kind of player that fans love. He doesn’t speak much, but he’s very competitive and fights every ball. He tackles really hard, even in training, and doesn’t make it easy for anyone. I’m a bit like this, too. But he’s on another level – there’s no joking around with him.”
This seriousness has always been a feature of Romero’s approach to his craft. Indeed, it was one of the things that most intrigued officials from Belgrano, the Argentine club who snapped him up aged 13.
Regardless of how talented he was, Romero was well aware that, coming from the countryside outside the central city of Cordoba, he faced more challenges than other kids. “I could see him becoming a top-flight defender, but one of the best in the world in his position? No, that never crossed my mind,” Daniel Primo, the former Belgrano youth football co-ordinator, says.
“He was really fast and bold. Perhaps too bold sometimes as he tried to dribble from the back. He would
‘He is a player fans love. He does not speak much, but fights for every ball and tackles really hard’
score five or six goals each tournament. He had a lot of character and ended up climbing through the ranks very quickly at the club.” Romero has won some high-profile admirers with his form since leaving Argentina. He recently revealed that Lionel Messi had been keen for him to join him at Barcelona, before his surprise move to Paris St-germain.
And yet one curiosity of Romero’s career is that he remains relatively unknown in his own country – despite captaining the national team’s under20s and earning comparisons with former Inter Milan and Roma legend, Walter Samuel, arguably Argentina’s last great centreback. Claudio Ubeda, who coached that side, says: “Technically speaking, I find Romero even better. He has great skills and is excellent in one-on-one situations, but he still has room to grow mentally.” A contract row hampered his playing time at Belgrano and at one point he was even considering his future in the game, as the impasse turned toxic. Ultimately, he refused to sign a new deal and was let go to Genoa in 2018. On his way out, club officials warned him that if he returned three months later asking for a place to play, he would not be welcome. That moment has not arrived – and is unlikely to ever do so.