Here We Go!
The iconic three words every football fan wants to hear for their club.
But what do they signify? And who made them popular?
Popular football news reporter Fabrizio Romano uses this phrase when delivering breaking news about player transfers from one club to another.
Romano has gained a reputation for being an extremely reliable source of this sort of news and his Here We Go has a near-perfect success rate, with only two exceptions.
The first one was the infamous fax machine faux Manchester United made when Madrid came calling for De Gea.
And the second one came only this transfer window when Danjuma bailed on Everton after doing their internal media and went to Spurs instead.
But who is Mr Romano? In this article, we take a look at the Italian in more depth.
Early life and foray into journalism
Romano was born on 21st February 1993 in Naples and studied at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.
Surprisingly, even though he hails from Italy, he is a supporter of Watford FC, a club playing in the second tier of English football.
“I realized that I wanted to be a journalist from an early age, “Romano once said in an interview with The Sporting News, “because I have always loved football, but I was not at the right level to play it professionally. That’s why I immediately chose journalism. Also thanks to the first experience in a small site at 16 which made me understand that this was my path.”
The Italian first started writing about the sport at 16, whilst still in high school.
His career began in earnest when, at 18 years of age, he received inside information about Mauro Icardi’s move from Sampdoria to Inter Milan.
He then went on to join Sky Sports Italy at the age of 19, and now also works as a guest columnist for the likes of The Guardian and CBS Sports.
The origin of “Here We Go!”
The phrase has become synonymous with football transfers and has been popularised by Fab, but its start was inconspicuous if anything.
Romano was just reporting on a transfer, like usual, and when talking about an update on a Manchester United transfer, he wrote “Here we go!”, just to state that the move is done and only formalities are left.
That was the onset of what has now become a trademark and a signature line, with many supporters asking him to use the same phrase for their transfers as well.
From Reporting On Players to Reporting For Clubs
Romano is one of the very few journalists that have reached a global stage where the person is the brand itself and does not need a news channel exposure to deliver the news.
The reporter has reached levels of fame such that he has been invited by clubs to do announcement videos for the clubs.
Toronto FC invited Fab to do the announcement video of Lorenzo Insigne, an idol in Naples, the city where Fab hails from.
He has since gone on to do more official transfer reveal videos but has stuck to his day job of being a football journalist.
Fabrizio Romano Net Worth: How Does The Transfer Guru Earn Money?
He is, before anything else, a journalist, and makes money writing for various publications and for himself.
He has written for The Guardian, BBC Sport, Bleacher Report, Gazzetta Dello Sport and more. He has also featured as a pundit on Sky Sports and BT Sport.
He also has a podcast called The Here We Go Podcast and does TV and Radio programmes.
His reliability and fame mean he can command a higher-than-average fee for all work he does for any organization.
As per Wtfoot, the reporter is worth an estimated $2 Million, while The SportsGrail has him at half that value.
Below are his possible sources of income and how much he can generate from them:
Sponsorships: If you noticed, Romano has started tagging Turkish Airlines in all Here We Go’s, indicating the possibility that the airlines have signed a sponsorship deal with the reporter.
Adidas also joined hands with the reporter, and with his social media posts reaching millions of impressions, it is not surprising at all.
He has 14 Million followers on Twitter, making the possibility of sponsorships and deals like these extremely lucrative.
It also appears the case that the Turkish Airlines partnership was only during the transfer window, as Romano has now stopped tagging the organization in his tweets.
Twitch: Romano has 525k followers on his Twitch channel. CriticalRole (1.2M followers), according to reports, is the highest earner on the platform with $ 9.6 million.
While Fabrizio’s following is half that, the content is vastly different to gamers and the space is very competitive.
So he can be estimated to earn at least one-tenth of CriticalRole’s earnings, making it approximately $ 1 million.
SOS Fanta: Romano is also the founder of SOS Fanta, Italy’s most popular fantasy football community. However, it is unclear what sort of income this platform generates.
While his net worth is estimated to be between $1-5 Million USD currently, one can only expect this to rise as the journalist’s stature and standing grows in the lucrative and money-filled world of football.
Does Fabrizio Romano Ever Sleep?
This question is often asked jokingly, especially during transfer windows. That is because Romano can often be found on Twitter at odd hours, breaking exclusive reports on player transfers.
Time is critical when it comes to breaking stories. You can have a good story but if someone else beats you to the punch, all work done can be rendered useless, which is why it is important to reporters like Romano to work at random hours.
He has admitted to sleeping only four to five hours a day during transfer windows, sometimes even pulling all-nighters when an especially huge development is underway.