The stakes are high for such a young player. Little wonder there’s so much talk.
In the market of five years ago, there wasn’t a club in the world who would have turned down thirty million for a twenty-one year-old centre back. For the sum that clubs are apparently willing to offer, Alessio Romagnoli could be the key to A.S. Roma landing some far more established and experienced stars with more under their belts than a good season at Sampdoria and ‘promise’.
There seemed to be similar reasoning behind the sale of Andrea Bertolacci: a 24 year-old midfield talent who had, like Romagnoli, come through the Roma youth system. He spent two seasons at Genoa who part-owned him, but he always had his eye on a return to the club that he had supported since he was a boy, to play alongside his idol Francesco Totti, who had been leading out the red and yellow men ever since Andrea was old enough to kick a ball. Walter Sabatini, Roma’s sporting director, shelled out €8.5m to see him return, but within a week was showing him the door having pounced on an offer of €20m from A.C. Milan.
Sabatini was lauded: he had doubled his money, he had successfully persuaded a hapless Milanese peer to overspend on a player who in all likelihood would have sat on the Olimpico bench. But for some onlookers, the sale cast the first ray of doubt over the current regime’s commitment to home values and Italian youth development.
Now the management’s mettle is to be tested again. The offers are rolling in thick and fast. It’s Milan again, and it’s even bigger: €25 million was the latest. But why is Sabatini holding out this time? Bertolacci was arguably a better player, earning his first cap for the seniors just as Romagnoli was crashing out of the European championships with the Azzurrini. Perhaps he thinks the younger of the two has more ‘promise’; but maybe, just maybe, he is starting to appreciate the value of the symbolic.
Romagnoli symbolises the love of the eternal city; hope, for a team in trouble last season; loyalty, of the kind this club is famous for; the club’s dedication to football, to what the fans want, not just to money. To lose two Italian starlets to a rival in the same summer – two players who the fans have built so much hope on – would be a huge blow to morale, never mind how much money gets invisibly wired into Sabatini’s PayPal account, never mind which big names they’re replaced by.
But leave all the schmaltz behind for a second, because the eventual decision has two very real repercussions. The first is a statement of competition and rivalry. Juventus has a notoriously huge network of youngsters on loan at various clubs, including Daniele Rugani who partnered Romagnoli in the U21 back line. By not cashing in, Sabatini and co. are saying that their youth can keep pace with the very best, and that they have the financial reserves to keep abreast with any Italian club – especially one with a notoriously bad reputation for choosing finance over youngsters, like Milan. Essentially, it is a statement of ambition: it says that Roma will not stop challenging for the Scudetto.
The second thing hanging on decision is this: by committing to Romagnoli, Roma is tying itself to the future of the Azzurri. They hold in their hands one of the two best young centre-backs in years, arguably since Leonardo Bonucci, who is probably the youngest world-class central defenders that Italy has. In selling him, they would be absolving themselves of that responsibility, resigning the fate of the national team to someone else.
Roma’s management is in the best possible position: they hold in their hands the potential to have club star who is also a lynchpin of the national team. With their history, with Totti and Daniele De Rossi, they simply cannot underestimate the value of such an icon. The value cannot be quantified, but if it could, it would be far more than €30 million. To see him become that icon at another team is a wound to Roman pride that no amount of money can remedy.
The post Why Selling Romagnoli Is A €30m Blunder appeared first on Italian Football Daily.
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