There will never be one truth about Cristian Romero’s time at Tottenham.
He has been a leader, a liability and a talisman. In five or 10 years, there will still be an argument about who this complex, compelling and confounding character was.
There are complications, of course, but there is also tribute to be paid to a player about to move to Atletico Madrid after both clubs agreed a €40million (£34.1m; $46m) deal.
Romero’s finest performance for the club arguably came on its biggest night. Son Heung-min was the captain in Bilbao in May 2025, when Ange Postecoglou’s side beat Manchester United 1-0 to win the Europa League, but Romero led the team out at San Mames, wore the armband for most of the game, and was the soul of a performance that nobody will ever forget.
Would Spurs have won that game without him? It’s inconceivable. Romero could be an erratic player. He seemed to lose concentration easily. But a few times each season, when in rare equilibrium, he could perform at an unfathomably high level.
Those games were rare, but Bilbao was one of them. The quality of his defending — his tackling, his heading, his blocking — was of a remarkably high standard. From the kick-off onwards, when he barged into Manchester United’s half to gather the players in that pre-match huddle, he got right under Manchester United’s skin and stayed there.
Spurs have often been callow in the modern era. In the biggest games, they have tiptoed onto the pitch and played as if being there was enough. How wonderful it was to see the way Romero carried himself that night, with an abrasive energy that almost had Harry Maguire swinging punches at full time.
That was Cristian Romero. One of the versions, at least.
This is a confusing legacy. Most simply, because Romero was not always there. In his five seasons, he appeared in more than 27 Premier League games just once. Between injury and suspension, he was never someone who could be depended upon to be in the side. And when he was, who knew what kind of performance he would give.
Romero could lock Erling Haaland entirely out of a game. He would kick him early, smash him to the floor in the first five minutes, and then keep him there, cowed, for the rest of the match. But he could also be caught hopelessly out of position by an utterly mundane team or gift a chance to some five-goal-a-season forward.
He was both of those players. He could be absolutely magnificent or utterly baffling, sometimes in the same half of a match.
Then there was Argentina, and the suspicion that playing for his country mattered a lot more to him. Maybe it did? Maybe it’s fine if so? Romero was part of a generation of Argentinian internationals who had a devotion to helping Lionel Messi win a World Cup. It was a rare, unique situation. But among those who wanted to see it, it created a sense that he never belonged to Tottenham in the way that other players did. Or even wanted to.
The bigger issue, often, was in the optics and the contradictions they showed. In January, as Spurs plunged towards relegation, he appeared to criticise the club’s decision makers on Instagram, accusing them “only showing up when things are going well”.
He verbalised what many felt at the time and his name was sung home and away in the weeks after. All together, always. But by April, he was making that meagre effort to prevent Nottingham Forest’s second goal in that devastating 3-0 home defeat. A month later, in the final week of the season, before safety was secured, he was rehabbing his knee injury back home in Argentina, as a terrified squad fought for their lives.
He had leave to do it. He did nothing wrong and whether he always intended to, or had a last-minute change of heart, he flew back to London for the final Sunday of the season and was in the stadium for the Everton game. At a time of incredible sensitivity, the decision to return to Argentina was always going to be provocative.
Was he right? Was he wrong? Had everyone just lost the capacity to be rational? Fans are entitled to their own perspective. But then, now, and always, there have been so many to choose from with Romero. He has always inspired such conflicting emotions that nobody could ever be certain what they felt for him.
Maybe it could have been different. Romero frequently seemed provoked by the club’s weaknesses and whatever imperfections lay in the coach of the time. What if he had played for Mauricio Pochettino, beside Toby Alderweireld or Jan Vertonghen? It’s natural to wonder, but pointless to dwell upon.
He’s Atletico Madrid’s riddle now.