2023-09-07 03:59:27
Sergio Romero is one of the great architects of Boca Juniors’ classification in the Copa Libertadores. Key in penalties, Chiquito keeps alive the fans’ hope of winning the Seventh. In an in-depth interview with F10 on ESPN, the 36-year-old goalkeeper didn’t dodge anything about his stupendous career. His thanks to Riquelme for the call that allowed him to “relaunch his career”, the darts to the Racing leaders who did not give him a “ball” and did not come “not even to say hello” and a message that excites the supporters of the Academy : “I do not close the doors.”
Among other topics, Sergio Romero also referred to his position on the Argentine team, where he keeps a historical record, and his desire to return. “You make the daily effort at the club to do well and then hope to be in the National Team again. The bug is always there, but we have Dibu who is going through a spectacular moment, Musso, Negro Benítez who deserved to be there. A pity for Rulli for the shoulder that he has injured ”. And he clarified that the anxiety to return will never be lost. “I have had anxiety about the National Team since I was 17 years old. I will never say no to the National Team. Once they asked me if he was going to retire me at Racing and I told him that ‘before hurting Racing, he would come back as a fan’. If my knee didn’t respond to me, he was going to tell Román, ‘thank you, but I’m going home.’ The same thing happens to me with the National Team”.
In addition, he revealed the counterpoint he had with Jorge Sampaoli and the rudeness of the then Albiceleste coach who disaffected him for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. “It was on May 21 that we met with Jorge at noon. He had a piece of gristle to remove and I made my knee available to him. Way one was to remove that piece and close the wound; the second was taking the time to see who I did it with that was a deeper clean. I told him, ‘I put my knee at your disposal together with Dr. Martínez, who has known me since I joined the AFA in 2005. He asked me for time and after training he called me and said: ‘I’ll be right back, I have to talk to the doctor.’. I stayed there alone. Then he came, and he told me ‘the doctor doesn’t assure me that in two weeks you’ll be on the pitch’. I told him, ‘Jorge, no one can assure you of that.’ He told me, I can’t wait, unfortunately I have to disaffect you. He was surprised that I shook his hand and left. At the time, when I got home, it was hard to understand. I got the accounts and I had a month to be able to count the first game that was on June 16. I don’t know if he preferred another goalkeeper. He had come to my house to explain to me many times what he wanted ”.
Chiquito also recounted a great gesture that he had despite not playing as much with José Mourinho for him and his family. “It was complicated. He trained from Monday to Friday thinking that Saturday would arrive and that José was going to tell me ‘you are going to play’. Unfortunately I had to be many substitute games. I confronted José Mourinho because as a person he is extraordinary. He sent me a message congratulating me after we passed against Nacional. He is on the other side of the world and he wrote to me. These people are the ones you come across in life and they are spectacular people. I have the best with him, at the time I had a problem and I had to travel for my family and he told me to take all the time I needed, that family is more important than anything.
And an unforgettable anecdote with Marcos Rojo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Manchester United. “One day he made us warm up a lot. The team was low and Mourinho told him to do something to lift training. We started to bitch with him because he provoked us. The rest who understood Spanish looked at us thinking that ‘this was going to end badly’. The training became so spicy that we gave ourselves everything. In the end, he approached me and told me ‘this is what we needed, that they take out the South American from within, the Argentine from within, that if we have to shit ourselves to lift training we do it every day’ ”.
Marcos Rojo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic as teammates at Manchester United (Mandatory Credit: Photo by Tgsphoto/Shutterstock)
He added: “I don’t regret leaving Manchester United because the film could have ended the way I ended in Venice. They told me ‘you were the goalkeeper with the most saves’, but they scored four goals for me. I knew that if I stayed I would be able to tackle well. When you have a monster ahead of you like David de Gea, who is great, it’s difficult”.
About the end, the Boca Juniors goalkeeper received warm messages from two historic xeneizes goalkeepers, such as Pato Abbondanzieri, with whom he shared a dressing room in the National Team, and Óscar Córdoba. “When I met Óscar, he gave me a hug as if he had known me all his life at Riquelme’s farewell. El Pato helped me a lot in my early days in the National Team”. He also showed the relics of his museum and spoke of his wife Eliana Guercio’s challenge for the popular outcry he receives every time she leaves her house. “My wife got mad because she had all the shirts stored in a bag and she told me to hang them up. I have many of my friends like Gago and Di María”.
“Ángel (Di María), by far is among the best players in the history of Argentina. He missed the 2014 final and did everything to get back there. He was lucky to score goals in all the finals he played ”, he concluded about Fideo.
OTHER REMARKABLE PHRASES BY CHIQUITO ROMERO:
The definition by penalties with Racing for the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores:
“When it was time for penalties, we always get together and give each other words of encouragement and I told my teammates that I was going to save two penalties and that they didn’t miss. I don’t know why I told them I was going to tackle the first one”.
Dart to the leadership of Racing and the previous call from Boca, with Guillermo Barros Schelotto as coach:
“The other time it was not with a leader either. That time it was Guillermo and it was because of Juanjo Romero who was the goalkeeping coach. At that moment I said no because Mourinho told me that he was going to give me minutes at Manchester United. In 2018 Diego Milito called me and told me that Racing was my home and that they wanted them to come back. It was very difficult because they had to buy me. Now it was different because I was a free player. Racing gave me the Tita property to train in, but it was the only thing they did, they didn’t even say ‘hello’ to me. Not a single leader came to speak to me, only the employees of the property. If they had made me an offer, I would surely have accepted it because I didn’t want to wait for the market to close as happened with the Venezia. I was not going to expect the same. I was recovering from my knee at Tita’s property and Roman’s call came.”
“It was a yes now because we were in Argentina. It had happened to me the previous year that I said I was going to wait for a European offer and the Venezia thing came out. I signed on Monday and on Tuesday Milan called me because the goalkeeper was injured. I had already signed and given my word. Now I didn’t want to lose what I had and that’s why I signed with Boca. It is a club that by doing things well and meeting the objectives is going to relaunch my career without a doubt. I am a goalkeeper who is in force, that this was not and that I have rope for a while ”.
The insults of the fans of Racing and that it does not close the doors to the Academy:
“It hurt (the insult), it’s not that it made me angry or I think it’s unfair. The fan is passionate and it is logical that a person who left the club and that I am going to tackle with another team and leave Racing out of a Copa Libertadores semifinal, it was logical that he was going to insult me. The good thing is that my teammates understood me, they turned around and went to celebrate alone”.
“I never close the doors to Racing. I have a contract with Boca until December 2024. You never know, I live in the present. I am grateful that they opened the doors of this club for me and I am not saying about Javi García that I have known them since I was 18 years old. Having met Gayoso, the props, everyone who treats me as if he had been in Boca all his life ”.
The confidence that Riquelme gave him, his present in Boca Juniors and the illusion for the Copa Libertadores:
“When I arrived I was three points. I was recovering. Today I am in an 8/9″.
“When I arrived at this club they treated me as if I were at home. Unfortunately I had to have surgery when I arrived and they told me ‘take the time you need’. They gave me the peace of mind to do the rehabilitation. That people thank you is very rewarding. I told my colleagues, ‘what is happening is because of the effort you made’”.
“When Román called me on a Saturday and told me that the pass book was closing on Monday. I told him, ‘look, I have two or three clubs in Europe’. He told me that he didn’t have any more time to look for another archer. I spoke with my family and my wife, who is a Boca fan, told me to hold on. She told me, ‘we are in Argentina and my daughters have rarely seen their grandparents.’ We didn’t take long and the next day I called Román and on Monday he was signing and speaking at La Bombonera”.
“The first thing that was said when I arrived in Boca was that it was broken. But I knew how he was. The first time I operated on my knee I was 17 years old. When you have surgery on your meniscus, you know that other lesions start to appear later. If I did the race that I did, it was because I have a hard head. It would be very nice to lift the Copa Libertadores. I was able to play it for the first time at the age of 36”.
His role in definitions by penalties:
“After what was 2014, from then on the one who comes to kick you comes differently. The penalties with the Netherlands were key. Between the four of us (together with Javi García, Leandro Brey and the goalkeeping coach Gayoso) here in Boca we do a great job. The other time in the Cilindro we lacked what we had against Nacional, which was the fans behind. In the Cilindro, having made a save without the Racing fans helped. I told my colleagues not to make mistakes because I was going to give them a hand. It helped not to be in the other goal, because when our players went to kick they were confident. El Chango (Zeballos) had tremendous confidence and helped a lot”.
“Three days before at my house it crossed my mind that he was going to stop (Piovi). I don’t know why it occurred to me. The tendency he had was to kick up the middle. With the work we did with Gayoso, with Javi and with Lea, we said, ‘let’s look for him to the left and up’. When the ball is down at half height I was able to save it ”.
“It is not something essential because you can be the best catcher and not catch any. It happened to me with Uruguay in 2011 that the five put me in. You play a lot with your head who is going to kick you. He who comes presenting blood, he is better for one. If he doesn’t feel anything, then it’s more difficult.
Messi’s comment to his former teammates:
“It was a mime for all of us who were battling a lot of time with him, with Ángel, with Otamendi. After they lifted the Cup it was spectacular, as their teammate and as an Argentine”.
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