"It's a jungle". That is is how I have been describing the transfer market for years now, because every day you wake up and you never know which and how many surprises it can reserve for you.
An incredible world full of twists that I personally fell in love with in the summer of 2009: I was 16, I started collaborating with a small Italian site until my first contact with an Italian agent in Spain opened the door to me.
"Mauro Icardi will join Sampdoria from Barcelona B, Pep Guardiola does not believe in him and will leave immediately", my first news that made me fall in love with that crazy world called the transfer market.
A small contact that became great when Icardi left Sampdoria to sign with Inter. It was November, a deal completed in June and then revealed almost eight months in advance thanks to my first contact that I will never stop thanking.
So I realized that the transfer market was my world, my life and it continues to be every day almost 13 years later.
The sense of adrenaline when you receive news, the total focus in working on it and verifying it with your sources until the last one before sharing it.
These are the simplest things in theory, but still today the most important ones to become the secrets of an increasingly complicated job.
Because compared to 10 years ago, the world of transfer market journalism has evolved a lot; in England and Germany for example it was much weaker than in Italy, today it has evolved and reaches excellent levels all over the world, each area with its own top journalists and specialists.
A turning point in my life was certainly the arrival at Sky Sport.
As a 19-year-old I had the opportunity to enter a world full of extraordinary professionals, but above all the opportunity to go around every day for almost 7 years in the center of Milan in search of news, new contacts, new football friends - agents, club directors, presidents, in some cases even players.
Because in Italy it works like this: in hotel lobbies or restaurants the most important people of the transfer market meet to discuss transfers, I used to spend 3 summer months plus January every single day on the sidewalks of Milan in search of a scoop, a new contact, news to be told the same day.
I will never forget many historical moments for the transfer market, like the face of Beppe Marotta and Fabio Paratici - Juventus directors in 2018 - when they had just signed the documents for Cristiano Ronaldo signed from Real Madrid
I was out at their hotel at the time and when they left they were happy, almost as incredulous as children!
Being able to tell these emotions has been a privilege for many years that has allowed me to fall in love with this work, try to always improve myself and never have limits in the search for news.
The beginning of collaborations with The Guardian and CBS Sports helped me to work on a more international dimension, a push that I wanted to carry on even in my networking in the most unexpected moments.
I remember well when I denied a deal between Sporting and Manchester United for Bruno Fernandes in the summer of 2018 despite everyone in Portugal ensuring that the deal was completed; but a few months later, in January, when I wrote my "Here we go" with the photo of Bruno and his agent Miguel Pinho leaving for Manchester it was an incredible moment.
I will always remember the reaction of the Man United fans on Twitter, a real turning point in my professional life ever since.
Bruno Fernandes and Manchester United until 2027. Here we go. 📑✍🏻🇵🇹 #MUFC pic.twitter.com/DINn2eunzv
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) March 31, 2022
Thus a constant search for international news was born without ever forgetting Italy, a job that every day requires almost 16/17 hours of my day and therefore a constant but beautiful commitment.
A great privilege, because the transfer market is a fair of dreams and being able to tell it is truly wonderful.
With a message always well impressed in mind: the journalist in my opinion must describe and update on the deal, never become more important than the clubs or the players.
A passive role that must be maintained in an attempt to tell each negotiation in the best way. It is not easy to always be connected, but it is the dream of many guys that I have been lucky enough to realize. Here we go!
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
FIRST PUBLISHED: 7th September 2022
