Topics: Fabrizio Romano, Transfers, Barcelona
Fabrizio Romano is known as the king of football transfer news these days, providing all the important updates on the biggest deals in the market.
But his very first story came back when he was just 18 years of age and looking for a breakthrough in the business.
Romano started out working for TuttoMercatoWeb in his native taly and spent six months writing away when a crucial phone call happened.
An Italian agent with strong links to Barcelona had some inside information and he rang a young Romano to spill the tea.
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The two players in question were Gerard Deulofeu and Mauro Icardi, who both spent time at La Masia for their footballing education.
Romano wrote the article and later had the exclusive on Icardi's transfer from Sampdoria to Inter Milan, which helped catapult his career.
Speaking to SPORTbible, Romano said: "He told me, 'If you can help me, I know you are a young journalist, could you do an article about two players I am talking with?'
"They were Gerard Deulofeu and Mauro Icardi. I started this relationship with him and it helped me because when Icardi arrived in Italy at Sampdoria and then Inter, I had the news. The Icardi news was for the first big one for me.
"I had the news outside the window; the agent called me in November and told me they found an agreement with Inter and that Inter are going to close the agreement with Sampdoria. He said, 'You can say the deal is almost done for the player to join not in January, but next summer.'
"That's how it started and I immediately loved this role of a journalist. The transfer market is a jungle I always say, you expect the unexpected every day and I like this feeling.
"In my opinion it's like playing football in a Champions League match, and when you break this kind of news it's like scoring a goal in the Champions League final."
Romano went on to join Sky Sport Italia and that helped expand his network of contacts to another level.
He sleeps just five hours a night from 5am until 10am during the transfer window, immediately starting to have calls and sending messages to check with agents and directors as soon as his alarm goes off.
Fast forward to the present day and Romano is the go-to source for transfer news, with the master of the "Here we go!" boasting over 34 million followers across Instagram and Twitter, as well as 1.7 million YouTube subscribers.
In 2022, he was voted the 'Best Football journalist" at the Globe Soccer Awards.
