Serious allegations against Fabrizio Romano

Fabrizio Romano has attracted millions of fans on social media with his football transfer information. But there is now heavy criticism.

“Here we go” — those three words, in German: let’s go, are the trademark of Fabrizio Romano. The Italian is a journalist and works for Sky Sport Italia, Britain’s Guardian newspaper, and US television station CBS, among others. His specialty: Announcing football transfers before anyone else.

So if Romano starts one of his countless tweets with the three amazing words, millions of football fans know: the deal’s done, the transfer fixed. Such is his trust in Romano that his followers joke that they trust him “here we go” more than their partner’s “I love you”.

But now this picture of Romano is cracking. Marcel van der Kraan, head of the sports department of the famous Dutch daily, De Telegraaf, accuses the Italian of being false. “Fabrizio Romano is kind of a transfer guru, but he’s number one when it comes to copying and pasting,” van der Kraan said on the Kick-Off podcast. He explains: “All of Europe is thinking: Wow, he got it. But he simply steals the news from every journalist in every country.”

“Of course I heard that, I got a lot of messages about it,” Romano replied to TV station RTL NL. He also said, “I can only laugh because I’m used to something like this now.” According to Romano, he has no secrets. “I’ve been working twenty hours a day since I was eighteen. I have a lot of connections and have nothing to hide.”