How Fabrizio Romano Changed Football News and What Comes Next

Yevhen Krazhan: Bet It Drives continues in Lisbon. Meet the man behind “Here we go,”  Fabrizio Romano. 

Here we go.

Fabrizio Romano: Yeah, here we go. Of course.

Yevhen Krazhan: Welcome to our Bet It Drives show. Very much pleased to have you here in Lisbon for SBC as well.

Fabrizio Romano: My pleasure.

Yevhen Krazhan: I’m taking you on this little short ride. Hope we enjoy the weather. The weather has been nice.

Fabrizio Romano: Sunny city, so I’m in a good mood.

Yevhen Krazhan: You probably heard that we recently, you know, chose Jose Mourinho as the face of our brand.

Fabrizio Romano: Yeah, I saw that.

Yevhen Krazhan: Your recommendation? Because things change very fast in this industry, football especially. What could be somebody next with our brand, with the same or even better fit?

Fabrizio Romano: Good question. That’s not easy because Mourinho is a very good starting point. I’m one of the biggest Mourinho fans in the world. When I had the chance to meet him, I was super emotional because Mourinho is not the manager. He’s THE manager to me, together with few others, like maybe Pep, Klopp, Sir Alex. So there are a few managers who represent the role as he does.

Yevhen Krazhan: The Special One.

Fabrizio Romano: Yeah, the Special One. And even my age, I’m 33, you know. And so the Mourinho golden era, the Aura Mourinho era, was when I was in my prime as a football fan. And so to leave that Mourinho experience, Porto, Inter, Chelsea, fantastic. So it’s not easy. It’s a very good starting point. Look, I think as we are talking about Aura and Portuguese people, Michael will be Cristiano, because I think when it’s time to be very honest, also in the opinions, I think of Jose, because Mourinho, obviously, when you do an interview with Mourinho, it’s always a beautiful feeling. You can feel how honest and transparent he is. And I also like that side of Cristiano. So I stay in Portugal, as we are in Portugal, and I go with Cris.

Yevhen Krazhan: I think he is on that stage of his career when he can move on. Already coaching? I don’t know.

Fabrizio Romano: I think he will be running his clubs now. He’s buying some clubs, he’s starting, planning for the future. Then, obviously, he still wants to win more titles before retiring and moving on to a new plan. But I’m sure it’s going to be ambitious, the future for him.

Yevhen Krazhan: Have you thought about maybe running a club?

Fabrizio Romano: No, to be honest, my dream when I was a kid rather than playing football, because I understood quite early when I was like 8, 9, 10, that I didn’t have the skills to become a player. So that dream was already over. My dream was to be a manager. So coaching has always been an obsession for me, something I always loved. Even when I play video games with my friends. I love the tactical part. As a sporting director is something that would be attractive, and I always loved that side of the game. But to be honest, I think it’s never gonna happen.

Yevhen Krazhan: Why?

Fabrizio Romano: Because I am completely focused on what I’m doing in the media industry. It feels nice, cool to say that I want to be maybe one day a sporting director. But then from saying that to doing that, you have to study, you have to learn. It’s completely different confidence you will have with people because you might say, okay, it’s the same people you’re talking daily to get your news. Yeah. But when you go on the other side, whose friend today could become an enemy, or maybe a rival, let’s say, on the sporting point of view. So it’s something that probably will never happen, because to be honest with you, I already feel tired, so I prefer to do something more calm in the future.

Yevhen Krazhan: Well, you know so many people.

Fabrizio Romano: I do.

Yevhen Krazhan: So maybe, you know, getting to know this skill and this vocation would, for you personally, take not so long.

Fabrizio Romano: Never say never. Never say never. But at the moment, I’m saying it is unlikely. Yeah.

Yevhen Krazhan: So, speaking about your sources, I know you will not disclose everything, but we want to go a little bit behind the curtains. How do you manage to go so deep, to really collect those little bits and pieces from different directions all over the world? You’re not just, you know, covering one club.

Fabrizio Romano: Look, this point, actually, I think it’s a very good question because I think sometimes people don’t really get that covering or trying to cover the whole world is not the same as covering a league, a club, or a country or whatever. It’s completely different. I think there are so many journalists who are fantastic and probably even better than me at covering their own league, their own country, or their own club. There are so many examples. I could mention many. But then when it’s time to cover football worldwide, that’s tough. Because every single day there are so many things happening. Even a story from South America, for example, might seem not interesting for European people, but in South America could be absolutely big and explosive. And so for me, it’s important to cover that. I like to cover that. And so that’s probably the most difficult part. You need to get your connections everywhere. To be completely honest with you, the most difficult part was at the beginning, because obviously now when you start growing your own brand, your own name, then I always say the football world is very big, but at the same time, the number of people who talk to each other is not that big at all. And so if your name has a good reputation, not just as a journalist, but could be any other role, I think people talk quite quickly between them about who you are, how you work, if you respect the industry and people in the industry.

Yevhen Krazhan: Fabrizio, there is this perception that you’re on your own, just yourself.

Fabrizio Romano: But that’s the reality. I’m on my own because at the end of the day, posting on the platforms is only myself taking responsibility for the news and the outcome of the news is always myself. Then I have like two, three friends of mine who work with me in terms of helping me with the output, it means graphics, it means editing the videos. They help me with the technical side. But in terms of posting the news, getting the news, getting the information. And again, posting is a big thing because it’s every single day. So many posts on so many platforms.

Yevhen Krazhan: Jesus.

Fabrizio Romano: That’s always my own responsibility.

Yevhen Krazhan: Per day, you manage to post 20, 30, 50, way more than that.

Fabrizio Romano: More. It depends. During the window, it can be more than. If you calculate all the platforms, it could be more than 100 posts per day.

Yevhen Krazhan: 100 posts?

Fabrizio Romano: Yeah. And then it’s completely different platform from platform because one thing is X, where maybe you post very quick to give the breaking news. On Instagram, the graphic side is very important. So you have to make sure the post is not only correct and accurate in terms of news, but has to be nice as well. And so the graphics side is important. On TikTok it’s more kind of quick video information. On YouTube, it’s a long video explaining people all the details of the stories. So it’s a completely different approach, platform by platform. And that’s, I think, also what makes the difference in terms of numbers than at the end of the day.

Yevhen Krazhan: So literally you compete with big, you know, industrial newsrooms, as I say, but trying to keep the team very small.

Fabrizio Romano: Yeah, because I like to have control. I always say when it’s gonna be time, and I don’t think it’s far away. So when it’s gonna be time to change a little bit the approach. And I feel this time is coming. But at that point, I always want to do things that make me enjoy. I don’t want to create a big company with so many people working there. It’s something that I never wanted to do. Maybe now I would have the structure to do that in terms of numbers. So you can create your own media company. But that’s not what I want to do. I want to enjoy, I want to work with my friends. Few of us, not 50 or 60 people, we are like three, four, five. And for me it’s the perfect number. We are enjoying what we are doing. Then again, it’s gonna change because it can’t be like this forever. You need to be smart at some point. But. Yeah, at the moment, yes.

Yevhen Krazhan: But you disrupt this industry of newsmaking a lot?

Fabrizio Romano: That’s a good question. Yeah.

Yevhen Krazhan: This is probably something that you do like because this makes you competitive, right? It makes you attractive, especially among the new generation.

Fabrizio Romano: No, no, no, for sure. That’s the point. For sure. I know that me and others, we change a little bit the rules of the game, let’s say like this, especially in terms of one of the biggest revolutions. I feel it’s about the timing. I think before this social media football era, maybe many traditional journalists were used to get their information by 7, 8 and then the day was probably over. So everyone was going to relax unless there was something super big till the following morning. 

Now, the transfer market, the transfer informations are every single hour. There could be a breaking news after midnight and it’s absolutely normal. So people want information, people want news every single minute of the day. It’s no longer waiting for a show or waiting for the front page of the newspaper. It used to be like that. Now it’s completely different. People always want to be informed. And so, yeah, I know I contributed to that, but I like that, to be honest.

Yevhen Krazhan: Excellent. And I think this impact is also affecting the sports betting industry where I think more sophisticated players need these news and the faster they get it, the better off their chances will be to win. As we call sports betting is more a game of skill and people are very much equipped with your information as well. 

Fabrizio Romano: Sure. I think that contributes to make sure people have all the information they need before they do whatever they want with that information. So first of all, the information is on my account, completely free. It’s something that makes me proud because many times it happened in my career that people told me why we don’t create an app. We call it Fabrizio or we call it “Here We Go” or whatever. People pay small amount of money every month and then with your followers, imagine how much you can generate. But I don’t want people to pay for that. I want my information to be free. And then with that information you can decide what to do. I’m really proud of that because I think it gives people the chance to make sure what they’re reading is actually accurate, fresh, correct, then it’s on them to do the next steps. 

I remember once a president, a really important president in football, from one of the best clubs in Europe. He told me, when I go sleep at night, before I start sleeping, I check your Instagram and I know everything about the football world. So for me, I told him it’s like a gold medal because saved by one of the best presidents around. He was like, imagine this guy is coming on my Instagram account and checking all the news. So it’s a source of information where you can make sure everything is actually correct.

Yevhen Krazhan: So effectively, not only disrupting, but you are changing the way people consume information. But the question is, what do you think will be happening in the next five years?

Fabrizio Romano: Look, I have a vision on that in terms of my own feeling. It’s not any study or prediction, just because it’s my good feeling on that. And I really believe in the video’s power. Video for me are going to be the next level of the information. Now we are used to spend a lot of time on social media, on the platforms, and that’s what’s been also part of my success these years. I have to be grateful to the platforms for giving me that kind of visibility, that stage. 

But then now I believe the next step could be on quality information. I know it sounds strange coming from me because it’s always been daily news quality, of course, but also quantity has been really important for me to deliver as much news as possible, always being accurate. But the next step has to be in my view now. Now that I have my own network, now that I have my own contacts to make sure I can also deliver different content. Brazilian players, for example. I remember when Estêvão started shining at Chelsea, people from his camp were like, come, let’s go to the streets where the boy started his career. All that kind of stuff is something I really want to do. Now I don’t have the time, but the mission is going to be create quality content to deliver information.

Yevhen Krazhan: Your own platform or even ecosystem, right?

Fabrizio Romano: Yeah, my own platform is the priority, of course, because again, I don’t want to create something that’s going to be too big, because I want to maintain control. If you create very big things, it’s obvious that you need someone who can control with you or instead of you. But my vision is always to have control, to enjoy. So yeah, my platform is going to be the priority again.

Yevhen Krazhan: Here we go, Fabrizio, we have this a little bit of a game, right? To relax a little bit from too deep of a thought.

Fabrizio Romano: Perfect.

Yevhen Krazhan: So the game is about some things should not be fast.

Fabrizio Romano: Okay.

Yevhen Krazhan: I will be asking you, giving you an option, and you decide: rush or not rush.

Fabrizio Romano: Perfect.

Yevhen Krazhan: So the first one will be breaking a transfer story. Rush or no rush?

Fabrizio Romano: Rush. Because you need to be accurate. You need to check with the right sources – yes. But timing is always important in transfers. You can’t way too much. You need to make sure again, the information is correct, but the timing is crucial.

Yevhen Krazhan: Saying, I love you.

Fabrizio Romano: No rush at all for me. You can slow down with that. Take your time, make sure it’s the right moment, the right person. We all made that mistake to do that too early. So I think it’s part of the process for everyone. So, take your time. I miss saying that, you know, it’s been a long time. I only say to my mother in the last three, four years. So maybe in the future.

Yevhen Krazhan: But yeah, but the recommendation timing should be right.

Fabrizio Romano: Absolutely.

Yevhen Krazhan: No rush, no rush. But say it as many times as you want.

Fabrizio Romano: Of course.

Yevhen Krazhan: The more you say it, the better world we will build.

Fabrizio Romano: Absolutely.

Yevhen Krazhan: Calling a player about a transfer.

Fabrizio Romano: I think no rush, to be honest. It’s a really important decision. Sometimes we feel from the outside, even me as part of the industry, but even the fans, we feel like it’s like a video game where you decide in five minutes, okay, there is the money on the table, I go buy. Five minutes, accept, reject, and that’s it. It’s an important decision. There are families, there are kids, there are friends, there are teammates, there is the coach, the project. There’s many factors before you decide that call has to take the right time. No rush. Sometimes the players, when they are super young, they are in a rush to decide immediately to jump on a plane and go Sometimes, to think a little bit more can be absolutely smart.

Yevhen Krazhan: Discovering a young football talent.

Fabrizio Romano: That’s a tough one. I would say 50, 50, maybe 51 rush and 49, no rush. Because you need time to check on the player. But as I always say, in the transfer market, in the transfer window, it’s a jungle. If you don’t buy it, someone else could buy it before you. And so, especially with young talents, okay, you need your time, but then the instinct sometimes instead of watching, I don’t know, 10, 12, 20 games, maybe it could take two. You take the risk. But if your feeling is telling, you go for it. You have to, because otherwise someone else is coming. And you could say, I saw that player, but… And that “but” could be very expensive.

Yevhen Krazhan: How about buying a superstar?

Fabrizio Romano: This has to be no rush for me. This has to take time. Buying a superstar, especially modern football, means buying a company. It’s not just about buying a player. You buy a company in the sense that it’s about marketing, it’s about image rise, it’s about what kind of impact it’s going to have on the club. Those cases, in my opinion, you need time. To make surprises is for the opportunities, not for the super big deals. When there is a superstar on the table, you need to make sure that again, the timing is right, the contracts are in place with everything giving also context to the club and to the player. So takes time, no rush.

Yevhen Krazhan: There could be a perception, maybe in the media, that the decision was quick, but you know it’s been cooked, especially for the superstars. How about changing your own career?

Fabrizio Romano: Look, this one is no rush because it started growing in my mind for some time. So it’s been already more than one year that I started thinking that I want to change the approach, I want to change the vision. It’s no rush because you have to be 100% sure about what you are doing. I’m lucky enough to take this decision at 33, 34. So I am in a moment of my life where I still have plans, big plans for the future. But at the same time, you need to be smart and to take smart decisions takes some time. So if you are in a rush, maybe you take the wrong decision. It’s better to take some time and to make sure you are not gonna hit any wall because then you can’t go back.

Yevhen Krazhan: Thank you. Thank you, Fabrizio.

Fabrizio Romano: Thank you.

Yevhen Krazhan: This was it for this little, not very complex game.

Fabrizio Romano: Yeah.

Yevhen Krazhan: Ready for the next tough one?

Fabrizio Romano: Of course.

Yevhen Krazhan: Was there a story in your career, in your life, when it was going to be explosive, but somebody asked you not to release it?

Fabrizio Romano: Yeah, it happens many times that maybe you have stories and people involved don’t want you to break it too early because maybe you can create problem to the negotiation. And this can come from the club, from the agents, from the player, from anyone. It depends on the single situation. One I will remember, imagine is a crazy case because it was not blocked, sort of blocked by anyone involved in the negotiation. But it was the media I was working for at the time. I was young, it was Sky, and they wanted to take some time because they didn’t have any confirmation. Sky in Italy on the news. And so I understand them, they wanted to be more calm. So taking some time before breaking the story. But then sometimes you need to go fast. And the story was Cristiano going back to Manchester United when Cristiano Ronaldo was going back to Man United. I’m not sure many people remember, but those days, all the media information was about Cristiano going to Manchester City. The stories where Cristiano is going to City, the negotiation is advanced even in Italy. Cristiano was playing at Juventus. Juventus were leaking information about the negotiation with Man City. Then Man United arrived in the space of 48 hours, and they got the deal done very quick. Probably Cristiano was waiting for them. This we will never know. He will only confirm that maybe.

Yevhen Krazhan: There was something cooking on the table.

Fabrizio Romano: Yeah, maybe. Could be. It’s part of the game. Absolutely. When I had the information, I really wanted to break that. I was like, let’s say that Man United are entered the race and competing with City for Cristiano. Juventus were not confirming. Other people were not confirming. They asked me to wait a little bit. The following morning, the story came out because, you know, when it’s so big, it’s obvious that someone else is gonna put his hands on the story.

Yevhen Krazhan: But it was not you.

Fabrizio Romano: It was not me.

Yevhen Krazhan: You probably have to check your sources. But do you always check, you know, multiple sources or just rely on one?

Fabrizio Romano: I always say that it really, really depends. I always take the example of school. When you go to school and you have maybe 20, 25 mates, then you have those who are your very best friends, those who are medium friends, and those who maybe you don’t speak every single day because you don’t have anything in common. It’s exactly the same. So you might have some sources that it takes only one call to tell you something, and you know it’s 100% accurate, and so you can go for it. It also depends, obviously, how sensitive is the story. So in some cases, you need to double-check, even if the source is a top source. But let’s say in my mind, I have some sources I trust 100%, and so I don’t need any other check. And I have sources that obviously are more in a medium or low level in my mind. And so I say it’s better check 2, 3, 4, 5 times. Sometimes it really takes time. It could take even two, three days to check. Timing depends on the journalist to have that sense of breaking the story at the right time.

Yevhen Krazhan: And with your 15 years in this industry, you probably have built those groups. The ones you do trust 100%. But you cannot rely 100%. Always you have your intuition, you have your gut feeling, the combination of these things that make you probably unique and very, very much successful.

Fabrizio Romano: This is one of the most important things I always try to share also when the young guys ask me how to be in this industry, how to work on transfers. And so it’s really important to use your own brain. If you just get information from someone and publish the information, that could be very basic. But then what makes the difference is try to understand. I always say the transfer market looks like a puzzle in my mind. You need to put the pieces at the right time and the right position. And so to use your own brain to understand if a story is true or fake, if someone is pushing something too much just for his own interest, apart from the sources, which is obviously really important and the most important part, to check and to verify your own brain, will bring you to the solution. So always use your own brain.

Yevhen Krazhan: The next one is also quite sensitive. And the sensitive because it’s about humans, about people and trust. Are there situations when you just use people? You just use the information and the friendship – you don’t care.

Fabrizio Romano: Look, friendship for me is an important word. And so there are some people in the football industry, everywhere, all over the world, who can be again, directors, presidents, agents, CEOs, players themselves. So it could be many people, different people, intermediaries. There are so many people in the football industry, so many people behind the transfer. So I have some people who are really my friends. And when I say friend, it means that if we are in the same city, we go for lunch or dinner, you have pleasure to share some time together. It’s not just about the information. It’s also plenty of people I know in football, I need them, they need me. And so we have a connection, but they are not my friends. For me, respect is always the most important thing. So, as long as you maintain respect with those people, it’s gonna be fine, it’s never gonna be a problem. But it’s never about using. In the sense that I only need you tomorrow, I’m not replying anymore. That’s something I would never do, because as I told you, the football world looks very big. But remember, the best news always come from the smallest people. I never got one of my biggest scoops from super big agents, super big directors, super big presidents, it was always from very small people involved in the industry who heard something. And then you corroborate with your main sources.

Yevhen Krazhan: But keeping your sources very much discreet.

Fabrizio Romano: That’s very important. Of course. Of course. Always.

Yevhen Krazhan: So here we go. Fabrizio. We’re back to where we started, but I think we have excelled a little bit. We made you a little bit closer.

Fabrizio Romano: Thank you.

Yevhen Krazhan: Even to your audience, they love you anyway.

Fabrizio Romano: Thank you.

Yevhen Krazhan: But sometimes you are in the spotlight. Not the football stars, not the coaches, but yourself. And this is where our show is a little bit different from others. Hope you enjoyed the setup.

Fabrizio Romano: I love it. I love the conversation. I have to say. Thank you for the interview. Was an absolute pleasure. I like this format. It’s very relaxed, so I’m not used to that word. So to slow down a little bit and have a proper conversation was very cool. So I will keep following your content.

Yevhen Krazhan: Thank you, sir. It’s a great pleasure. Our industry is very close to what you do. I think we rely on your sources, on your information, on your stories. And good luck in all your endeavors.

Fabrizio Romano: Thank you.

Yevhen Krazhan: In all your projects and the career moves as well.

Fabrizio Romano: Thank to Jose Mourinho from me.

Yevhen Krazhan: Jose was just sitting right here just a few weeks ago.

Fabrizio Romano: I feel the pressure.

Yevhen Krazhan: Thank you. Thank you.

Fabrizio Romano: It’s been a pleasure. Thank you.