In a world of transfer market gurus such as Fabrizio Romano and David Ornstein, there emerges a name of a Spanish reporter that is almost certain to break the news about any and every FC Barcelona’s movement in the transfer market.
He is Gerard Romero, a former employee of RAC1, a Catalan radio station, and a football journalist who has cultivated reliable sources in the upper echelons of Blaugrana and is now an avid Twitch streamer.
Romero had worked at RAC1 for 14 years and has been the leading contender to report any day-to-day activities or transfer speculations or news coming from the Barcelona camp. As Ornstein could do no wrong with transfer news about English football, it’s almost criminal to say that Romero would fall flat on his face while reporting on Barcelona’s transfer market moves.
It’s not all verbose. Romero has proved his ITK (in-the-know) credibility in the past when he broke the news of Ferran Torres joining Barcelona from Manchester City when many thought that the Catalans will make no strides in the transfer market. Back in 2019, he was quick to call out Everton’s interest in Yerry Mina and Andre Gomes, and later both left Spain for England. Romero also confirmed the departure of Paco Alcacer from Barcelona, which gave the fans a sense of belief that Romero could do no wrong.
But nobody’s perfect. He made a mistake when he mentioned that Matthijs De Ligt’s move from Ajax to Barcelona was inevitable, but the dutchman’s move to Juventus marked a stain on Romero’s budding reputation as a leading journalist.
Many fans turned on him and mentioned that he has enough to make anyone pay attention but not just enough to take any news from him as a given.
But for now, Romero is the top guy for any Barcelona transfer news. He has built several relationships with important players and executives. To establish his serious intent, he even had Barcelona’s economic vice-president Eduard Romeu on his live stream on Twitch, where the duo discussed matters relating to the club. Luis Carrasco was one of the other executives to have blessed Romero’s Twitch stream.
Apart from the executives, Romero has club legends like Andres Iniesta and Luis Suarez on his Twitch stream. Cesc Fabregas and Juan Miranda have also appeared in Romero’s live streams in the past. Even Fabrizio Romano couldn’t help but sign up for a chat with the Spaniard in his stream.
These personal and up-close relationships have also helped Romero to build his reputation and given him easy access to confirm any transfer speculations.
Lately, Romero had Suarez on his Twitch stream and danced when he gained a new subscriber during his live session with the ex-Barcelona forward.
Romero is vibrant and exudes great energy while interacting with other streamers or guests. He has a no holds barred approach when it comes to his questions but despite his solid reputation with FC Barcelona, he does experiences a few hiccups while reporting on the club’s transfer news.
As per Barcelona’s Transfer reliability guide, run by a Reddit forum, Romero is now listed as a ‘Tier 2’ source for the club. This slip is questionable since the Spaniard is still considered to be the top-quality resource for Blaugrana’s transfer news.
Although this is not a parameter to measure Romero’s success it surely echoes the voice of the fans who are trying to help the Spaniard from drowning.
