Tottenham captain Cristian Romero has announced he is leaving the club, with his transfer to Atletico Madrid expected to be confirmed after the Spanish side agreed a deal worth about £34.2m (€40m).
Tottenham will also retain a 15% sell-on clause for the Argentina international, who joined from Atalanta for approximately £42m in the summer of 2021. The proposed move means Spurs are set to make a loss on the 28-year-old defender.
Romero confirmed his departure in an Instagram post, saying he was proud to have captained the team that ended Tottenham’s 17-year wait for a trophy.
“Today, I say goodbye to a place that, for five seasons, was much more than a club. It was my home, my challenge and the place where my family and I built such an important part of our lives.
“I leave with a heart full of memories and enormous pride for everything we lived and achieved together.
“When I arrived, I had a clear dream: to leave my name in this club’s history. I knew the only way was through hard work, sacrifice and achieving something that had seemed so difficult for so long: lifting a trophy again. And we did it.”
Romero added: “The journey wasn’t perfect, but I don’t want that to define my goodbye. I choose to remember the happy moments, the lessons, the people who stood by me and, above all, the love I received during these five years.
“Thank you to everyone at the club who shared this journey with me. Coaches, team-mates, staff and every person working behind the scenes you are all part of my story and have a place in my heart.”
Atletico Madrid have admired Romero for a long time and there had been an expectation that Tottenham would sanction his departure this summer if an acceptable offer was made. The centre-back was understood to favour a move to Atletico Madrid, while Inter Milan and Arsenal had also shown interest.
Tottenham were reluctant to let their captain join Arsenal, particularly their fiercest north London rivals. Earlier this month, a source told Sky Sports News that Arsenal had considered Romero as an option to strengthen their centre-back group, although that interest never developed into club-to-club negotiations.
“There was talk that Romero would have happily accepted a move to Arsenal,” said Sky Sports News’ Michael Bridge on Sky Sports’ Tottenham summer special podcast.
“There were no club-to-club talks on this, but when you hear that then that’s the final nail for Tottenham supporters.”
The two clubs rarely conduct business with one another. The last negotiated transfer between them was 49 years ago, when goalkeeper Pat Jennings moved from Spurs to Arsenal for a reported £45,000.
Romero’s Tottenham contract was due to run until the summer of 2029. He made 124 appearances during his five seasons with the club, scoring 12 goals and receiving four Premier League red cards.
His final season was affected by disciplinary and fitness problems. He was sent off twice during Tottenham’s Premier League relegation battle and later missed the end of the campaign with a knee injury.
He also faced criticism from supporters when he appeared likely to attend boyhood club Belgrano’s Argentina Primera Division Apertura final against River Plate instead of Tottenham’s crucial final match of the season against Everton. Romero ultimately attended Tottenham’s game.
Tottenham had appeared to prepare for his exit by signing defenders Jan Paul van Hecke and Marcos Senesi. Spurs are set to receive less for Romero than Brighton paid for teenage defender Luka Vuskovic, who joined the Premier League club in a record £50m deal earlier this summer despite not making a competitive appearance for Tottenham.
Speaking on Sky Sports’ Tottenham summer special podcast, Michael Bridge said Tottenham would not receive a fee that reflected Romero’s ability.
“Spurs are not going to get the value for a player of his ability.
“Luka Vuskovic, who didn’t make any competitive appearances for Spurs, will be sold for more than what the club’s captain will go for because he’s gone to a Premier League club.
“I think it’s best for all parties that Romero leaves. I think 99.9 per cent of Spurs fans would agree with that.
“On his day, there aren’t many better – he doesn’t make any mistakes for Argentina, but in terms of Tottenham it just feels like it’s his job.
“He adores Argentina, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it feels as if Tottenham is a bit of a chore for him and it’s gone a bit too much that way.”
Former Spurs midfielder Jamie O’Hara also criticised Romero’s performances and attitude.
“He’s a bit of a liability. When he plays, he costs us games, points and red cards.
“I just think his attitude towards the board and the way he was, I just think it’s, ‘All right, thank you, and we’re going to move on’.
“We’ve finished 17th the last two seasons, and he’s been involved. He was captain last season, and the way he acted at the end of the season, when he got injured, and we all saw him crying, that wasn’t for Tottenham; it was more for Argentina and his World Cup.
“And then he goes to Argentina on the last day of the season, and everyone’s like, ‘Where’s Romero?’ So that situation for me needs to be put to bed. I don’t think we need any of that bad publicity around us.
“Get as much as we can for him; let him move on. We’ve got back-up now with Van Hecke and Senesi, so thank you, see you later.”
O’Hara said Atletico Madrid’s offer reflected the financial difference between Premier League clubs and their European counterparts.
“The problem is there’s a premium for English clubs, who will pay over the odds for people with European clubs inflating the fee.
“The problem is if you’re going to go and sell him to Atletico Madrid, they haven’t got the money.
“If we were selling him to Man Utd, we could probably get £60m-70m for him. But the problem is if you sell a player to Europe, they just don’t have the money that the Premier League clubs have, so you have to accept that it’s going to be a lesser fee than what maybe you think you can get for him.
“He wants to go to Atletico Madrid. He just feels like an Atletico Madrid player. I just feel like you’ve just got to take that one on the chin and move on from it.”
Sky Sports News senior football news editor Lyall Thomas said Romero’s performance in Tottenham’s 3-0 home defeat by Nottingham Forest last season demonstrated why the club needed a change.
“Quite a top figure in the football industry said to me, ‘Go and watch Romero’s role in the second goal in Spurs’ 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at home last season’.
“I watched him, and it was arms in the air, not tracking the player back who ended up scoring, which contributed to the goal.
“That was Spurs when they needed their captain the most, and he just wasn’t there in that moment, so that says it all.
“It’s time to move on from that era of Spurs and into the new era.
“This has been shown by some of the players they’ve brought in, which is not just to have an impact on the field but to have an impact on the dressing room and sort that area of the club.
“It’s a move that suits Romero to go and work with his compatriot [Diego] Simeone. I can imagine they will suit each other down to the ground. It just fits. The planets are aligned on this one.”
