The transfer window that broke Fabrizio Romano

After a bruising summer, the Fabrizio Romano “journalism” show appears to be coming to an end. The 33-year-old Italian has become the unofficial face of the transfer market over the past decade – a digital explosion that has netted him 135 million followers and a considerable amount of cash. Yet in a cryptic LinkedIn post, Romano hinted that he is about to change career all together. “I’m probably not gonna continue into the transfer market industry as I’m doing right now for longer,” he wrote. “It’s time to change the approach, the view… but this will be another topic soon, after the transfer window closes.” “Journalism” is used in quote marks above because Romano is considered by his critics to be an influencer, a marketeer or an aggregator, rather than an objective reporter. The i Paper has spoken to sources across the game for a comprehensive profile of Romano. It shows how his influence has added millions to transfer fees – and what agents, clubs and his rivals really think of him. Allegations of plagiarism Romano spent the World Cup final posting banal information about players like Lamine Yamal (Photo: Getty) Romano had a great World Cup, at least in terms of earning advertising cash from a global fast food giant, a betting firm, and a cryptocurrency “prediction market” that accepts wagers on everything from sport to the outcomes of wars. With the transfer window back in full swing, the rise of arguably the world’s most popular football journalist has appeared at times unstoppable. He is adored by his most devoted fans, who believe he is the best source of transfer exclusives, but he comes with substantial baggage. Allegations have been levelled against him about plagiarism and his complex relationships with agents, and his commercial activities with controversial entities, not least the Saudi Arabian government, an arm of which he promoted in an obsequious video earlier this year. He has also earned cash from promoting Fifa, beer and other products. He is facing increasing scrutiny over his reliability, with X users posting community notes underneath his tweets to correct information and the r/soccer Reddit community, which boasts over four million fans, banning all posts related to his reporting. What is perhaps surprising about Romano’s output for someone with his reputation is quite how banal much of it is. Consider what his X account was posting around the recent World Cup final. It was, effectively, an aggregator account, posting bland information – available all over the internet – of Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal arriving at the stadium, and “news” that Spain had won, and video clips of the post-match celebrations or sadness. Romano is probably best known for his transfer “exclusives” but he has been accused of copying other “ITK” (in the know) accounts and journalists. In 2022, for example, Marcel van der Kraan, the head of sport at the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf accused Romano of lifting exclusives from other reporters, including by his colleague Mike Verweij. In summer 2022, Verweij reported that an Ajax player, Antony, had missed training, a scoop that Romano reported as an “exclusive” two minutes later. The only response to these allegations from Romano was a thumbs up and smiling emoji. In June last year, an X account specialising in football, EIF Soccer, accused Romano of “stealing and plagiarising people’s tweets word for word”. Citing a specific example, they pointed to a post they published on 20 June last year, and then an identical post Romano made on Instagram the next morning, right down to Romano using the same text verbatim and the same photo, with no attribution. The i Paper asked Romano a long list of questions in writing about his work and he failed to respond to any question or answer any calls. A key question around the 2026 World Cup is whether Romano made a factual error around England star Elliot Anderson’s imminent move from Nottingham Forest to Manchester City because he initially copied information from someone else, or just had an inaccurate source. On 25 June, he posted on Instagram that Anderson was moving to City for £130m. That was wrong. In fact it was later confirmed Anderson would move for £116m with no add-ons, something Romano himself then posted on X. When challenged on social media why he changed his story within hours, he said other media were originally reporting the same £130m figure as him, which suggests he either had an unreliable source in the first place or was simply copying the reporting from others. Blurring lines between journalism and PR Romano poses with Ashley Cole in the Heineken tent at the Champions League final in Budapest (Photo: Getty) Romano has also been accused of accepting money to make social media posts about footballers, from their agents or others close to them), to raise their profiles. A journalist in the US, Jose Roberto Nunez, alleged Romano had posted innocuous “news” about Philadelphia player Chris Donovan getting a new contract, for a fee of $1,100 (£800). The i Paper asked Romano to comment but he did not respond. You can look at the video that Donovan himself released, saying his agent had told him Romano would announce his contract extension. And also the report that another player from the same agency that then looked after Donovan was being tweeted about by Romano. Romano also appears to have a relationship with a Glasgow agency, StormSportsSX, with Romano posting about low-profile players such as Josh Mulligan moving to Hibs from Dundee. The agency has boasted of “a close network of trusted journalists to advance our clients’ interest in the media”. Asked by The i Paper if there had ever been a direct cash incentive to promote such deals, Romano did not answer. Similarly he was less than clear about his relationships with players at clubs in 2024 after it was reported that he was making social media posts for cash, not least in Scandinavia. Norwegian club Valerenga FC told journalist Andreas Selliaas that it had been approached about such an offer by an intermediary linked to Romano, called Memmo. Romano denied to Selliaas that he has ever received money for tweeting about potential transfers or the promotion of players. Backlash from rival journalists Romano has proved an unpopular figure with his rival journalists (Photo: Getty) Romano has had a number of high-profile run-ins with journalists from the mainstream media about his methods. Florian Plettenberg, a reporter at Sky Germany, recently accused Romano of “fail[ing] to credit the original source in a large share of your Instagram posts” and deleting stories that turned out not to be true. In response, Romano accused Plettenberg of “fake news”. Luke Edwards of The Telegraph also took Romano to task about his reporting of Julian Alvarez’s supposed desire to leave Atletico and move to Barcelona. Edwards said Romano helped “start the fire by excitedly reporting the interest. Add kindling to ensure it keeps burning by constantly tweeting the same thing with the words changed or moved into a different order”. There was a public spat, with Edwards saying Romano has no relationship with Newcastle United because, unlike other clubs, “they know what you do”. Romano did not respond to this allegation. The i Paper has spoken to multiple executives at English top-flight clubs and most view Romano as “an agitator”, often playing a role for a player or agent in seeking a move. “Agents have traditionally played this role themselves, going direct to media contacts,” one source said. “But now Romano just tells 135 million people, which creates waves, and pressure.” One executive from a mid-table Premier League club told The i Paper that a “Big Six” club wanted one of their players and involved Romano in “promoting” this link – although we have no evidence a fee was involved. According to the source, Romano reported the move as a “done deal” based on information from the buying club, despite the transfer not having been agreed. The buying club ultimately paid more than intended, while the selling club received a higher fee than expected. “[It] didn’t make us happy Romano was involved but we got millions more than expected,” the source said. ‘The most disgusting thing he’s ever done’ Romano incorrectly posted that Christian Atsu had been found alive (Photo: Getty) Arguably Romano’s most controversial event was reporting that former Chelsea, Everton and Newcastle player Christian Atsu was alive after an earthquake in Turkey. One correspondent and former associate of Romano claimed “this was probably the most disgusting thing he’s ever done”. On his Facebook page, Romano told his followers on 7 February 2023 that Atsu was alive and in hospital after being found with a foot injury and breathing difficulties. Actually Atsu was dead, and his body was found on 18 February. An actual journalist, with any scintilla of credibility, would have reported that Atsu was alive “according to” whoever provided that information. But Romano instead stated as fact that Atsu was alive, and his family took hope from this declaration from an “authoritative” source, apparently close to footballers. Read more Daniel Storey: Introducing the Journeyman – where fans vote for the football stories I tell On The Road: 101 things I learned by driving 7,835 miles across Trump’s America While many people find Romano’s work distasteful, and his adverts for so many companies to be crude, he will be front and centre during the rest of this summer’s transfer window, entertaining and informing his many millions of fans. What the future holds is less clear, with a transfer into straightforward PR apparently on the cards, after he recently incorporated a new company in Italy which will “specialise in marketing and sponsorship activities”. As the man himself might say, using a catchphrase he has been accused of nicking from someone else: “Here we go!”