Cristian Romero will soon be officially and definitively a Tottenham Hotspur player. Fabrizio Romano reports tonight that Spurs have triggered a £40million ‘obligation’ to buy Romero, confirming his move to Spurs last summer was in fact on loan with an option to buy.
Tottenham will activate a £40million purchase obligation clause in the coming days for Cristian Romero. “Signature of the season”, according to Jamie Carragher. ⚪️ #THFC
Fabio Paratici wanted him as a key player and Romero will be part of the project – he’s already signed until June 2026. pic.twitter.com/9aZlve7saa
— Fabrice Romano (@FabrizioRomano) May 24, 2022
When we wrote about the signing last summer it was a full €50m (£42.5m) signing, but apparently that wasn’t quite right – he looks like it was more of one of Fabio Paratici’s classic ready-to-buys. offers. Paratici likes those sorts of deals, and in truth, it made total sense for Spurs to do something like this at the time because the club were still emerging from the COVID-19 shutdown with a bit of financial instability. , or at least a lack of liquidity in their finances.
And on digging around, former Carty Free writer Joel Wertheimer found this tweet from Alasdair Gold from last summer which appears to confirm it was an initial loan with Romero signing a five-year deal after he permanently signed.
Now the following has been confirmed. It is indeed a loan with option to buy Cristian Romero for 42.5 million pounds sterling and a five-year contract concluded with the player after the initial loan. Similar to Lo Celso. Matches Atalanta’s deal for Demiral in that both clubs only have to pay later. Clever deal. https://t.co/Hi05MEcxEq
— Alasdair Gold (@AlasdairGold) August 7, 2021
It’s a little confusing here whether this is an “option” to buy or, as Romano puts it, a “mandatory” to buy. The price, £40million, is also slightly lower than announced last summer, although this could be due to currency fluctuations. I’m also guessing if it was a loan move Spurs probably paid quite a hefty loan fee to Atalanta in order to get him through and what’s owed now is £40m minus the fee that we paid.
But ultimately it’s a distinction with no real difference – it’s been pretty clear for a while now that Spurs are delighted with Romero’s production in their back line. Whatever Spurs paid was well worth it for a player who has established himself as one of the Premier League’s best defenders this season.
It’s a deal that’s been done before, so it doesn’t SEEM to be a big deal right now, but it’s absolutely a great deal.
