He’s known as the Nostradamus of football transfers and busiest at this time of the year with multi-million-pound deals balanced on a knife edge – meet social media sensation Fabrizio Romano.
The 31-year-old Italian – known for his catchphrase ‘Here We Go’ – has amassed almost 32million followers on Instagram, 22million on Twitter, 19million on Facebook, 13.4 million on Tik Tok and 2.3million on YouTube.
His huge social media reach is more than the population of the United Kingdom and is still growing.
Forbes magazine recently naming him in the top 30 for media and marketing in Europe, while one website estimated his world-wide reach as an astonishing 4.2 billion people.
Romano is constantly ahead of the game when it comes to transfer news and is one of the most trusted sources when it comes to big money player deals.
In a recent interview on Italian radio, he was asked how he gets his information and said: ’Being first with the news is important but it’s also crucial to check and verify before I post something.
‘I hang around outside hotels, restaurants and training grounds and talk to as many people as I can, I also know agents and players and over the years I have built up a network of contacts.’
While in an interview with Corriere Della Sera last year, Romano revealed: ‘For years, through the summer and winter, I would just walk from hotel to hotel, restaurant to restaurant looking for agents, intermediaries and sporting directors.
‘I would leave home first thing in the morning, and I wouldn’t get back until after midnight. I met 100,000 people. That was my stroke of luck and the secret of my success.’
But when he’s not outside swanky Milan hotels such as the Palazzo Parigi and the Melia, he also spends a lot of time on his phone – prompting many to ask if he ever sleeps – as he is on his mobile at least 17 hours a day.
Earlier this week, he broke the news that Liverpool were in talks with Juventus over the signing of Federico Chiesa, while another snapshot showed him posting well into the early hours on transfer news before taking a brief six hour break.
Romano was 18 years old when he moved from his home city of Naples to Milan, where he studied journalism at the city’s Cattolica university but dropped out after a year.
After working as an intern at Sky Sports Italia, he has never looked back.
His first big break was in 2011 when he broke Argentinian Mario Icardi’s move from Barcelona to Sampdoria in Italy’s Serie A.
He told an Italian radio station: ’I got talking to a bar man in Barcelona where the players came and he overheard them chatting (about the move) and then he gave the news to me.’
Sky Italia had wanted to offer Romano a job covering all sports but he turned it down saying he wanted to focus more on the football transfer market and from there has never looked back.
He still collaborates with them but also with The Guardian and American broadcaster CBS – alongside a podcast with fellow Italian football journalist Francesco Porzio appropriately named Here We Go.
When asked in an interview with The Bleacher Report where his catchphrase came from, Watford fan Romano said: ’I did not plan for ‘’Here We Go’’ to become a brand. I was not planning anything.
‘To be honest, I cannot even remember clearly when it started, but it was a deal about Manchester United, maybe Paul Pogba, and it had been going on for a couple of months.
‘People kept asking me for updates, and when the deal was finally in place I just said ‘‘here we go’’.
‘People liked it and started to ask me about other transfer rumours – they wanted another ‘here we go’ about their club.
‘I feel excited when I get a big story. For me, it’s like scoring an important goal in a big match.’
Romano may not have been ‘planning anything’ but he has certainly managed to turn his brand into a money spinner – with sponsors on social media estimated to make him in excess of £1.6 million, according to one report.
When asked by Corriere Della Sera if he was rich, Romano replied: ’I make a lot more from my platforms, that is Instagram, TikTok and above all YouTube, than I do from traditional media.
‘I wouldn’t say I was rich, I do OK, I have a house in the centre of Milan, I’m happy.’
He also has a Here We Go website where you can buy personalised gifts including a T shirt with the catchphrase printed on it with a specific message and video for £112 – or £86 without the video.
Romano is also offering video shout outs as well an advert on the site reads: ’Are you getting married, won your fantasy football league or are you looking for the perfect birthday gift for your friend?
‘Let Fabrizio announce it for you! Write your text and wait for the Here we Go message you dreamt of.’
His father was President of the Order of Chemists in Naples while his mother was a biologist and both have now retired but Romano told Corriere Della Sera: ’I was never interested in following a career like them, for me it was always going to be sports journalism.’
However, it has not been plain-sailing for Romano, who has also come in for heavy criticism along the way.
He has been accused of simply copy and reposting other journalists’ work and angered some Liverpool fans – who accused him of scuppering Moises Caicedo’s move to Anfield last year.
Two years ago, a Dutch journalist from Der Telegraaf accused him of copying his work and Romano said: ’I wrote to him and invited him onto my show and said we can talk about it.
‘I said we can play a game, we can call ten contacts each, whoever you want and let’s see who replies. He didn’t accept my offer and he blocked me on social media.’
Earlier this year, Danish media claimed he had offered football clubs the chance to promote their clubs in return for cash so he could boost publicity for them along with any potential transfers.
In one report, Troels Bager Thogerse, of weekly Danish football magazine Tipsbladet, revealed how FC Copenhagen star Roony Bardghji was reported by Romano to be ‘unwilling’ to extend his contract.
The claim was denied by the club and Thogersen wrote: ’I know Fabrizio Romano is adored out there. But I just have to say that he often goes on errands for agents and gets his information from there.
‘This seems strongly to be in the interests of the hinterland to put pressure on FCK. (FC Copenhagen)
‘It tells us a lot that the company behind Romano is trying to enter into partnerships with clubs.
‘So, you have to take what comes up with a grain of salt, because it may be with a commercial intention that he says it.’
Romano’s response to the claim is not known but if it is anything like his reaction to the Dutch reporter the most likely outcome is that he will have dismissed it.
However, Romano has revealed he doesn’t plan to go on much longer, telling Corriere Della Sera: ’I’m not going to quit now because this is a job where if you take it easy for a few days you can throw everything away.
‘But I’m not going to go on for another ten, twenty years, I would be exhausted. I don’t want to be an agent or a sporting director but I’d like to do more in-depth commentary, not on who is going where but why.’
Romano also revealed that he was single because of the job – although Italian media have linked him to Italian sports broadcasters Giulia Amata and Sara Meini – although nothing has been confirmed.
Fabrizio has also inherited a love of jazz from his dad and when he does find the time to unwind, he listens to Italian musician Paolo Conte – often past 1am when he is about to turn in for the night.
He told Corriere: ’I also like documentaries and history programmes, I don’t have Netflix, I prefer something more like the voyages of explorer Christoper Columbus.
‘I also like philosophy books which I studied at school in Naples, they formed and changed my life and I am forever grateful to the teachers there.
‘I would love to go back and meet my philosophy teacher, I haven’t had the chance yet but if the opportunity arose for a coffee with her or with Messi I would choose her.’