Barcelona Announces The Arrival Of Oriol Romeu From Girona

Illustration- (Photo: Barcelona Headquarters/Unsplash-Patrick T'Kindt)

JAKARTA - Barcelona officially announced defensive midfielder Oriol Romeu as a new player on a three-year contract until 2026 and set a clause for the player's purchase of 400 million euros. Romeu is Barcelona's third signing for next season after Inigo Martinez of Athletic Bilbao and Ilkay Gundogan of Manchester City. Barcelona “FC and Girona FC have reached an agreement for the transfer of Oriol Romeu players,” wrote the club's official website reported via Antara, Wednesday, July 19. The transfer saw Romeu return to the Blaugrana for the second time after arriving at the club that won the Spanish League last season in 2004 as part of the youth squad. His youth career with Barcelona continued to climb at the age group level until he had the opportunity to strengthen Barca Athletic under coach Luis Enrique. His good performance with Barca's youth team was then awarded a debut with the first team then coached by Pep Guardiola at the Supercopa de Espana against Sevilla in August 2010. That season he was also given a debut by Pep in the Spanish League against Deportivo de La Coruna in May 2011, as reported by Transfermarkt. Seven years defending El Barca, Romeu won two trophies, namely the 2010/2011 Spanish League and the 2010/2011 Supercopa de Espana. After that, the 31-year-old footballer's career continued to the Premier League when Chelsea signed him in August 2011. His first season with the Blues went smoothly with 24 appearances in all competitions and became part of the squad in winning the Champions League and FA Cup. In the 2012/2013 season Romeu's performances decreased due to only appearing nine times in all competitions until its peak was loaned to Valencia in the 2013/2014 season and to Vfb Stuttgart in the 2014/2015 season. Loaned to Valencia and Stuttgart made Romeu's playing minutes back a lot and in August 2015 Southampton came to propose to him. The 1.83-meter-high footballer served seven years with the club based at Saint Mary ’s Stadium with 256 appearances in all competitions and scored eight goals and six assists. His good performance with Southampton took place in 2015/2016 or his first season when he brought the club he was defending to finish in sixth place in the Premier League with 63 points. At that time, Romeu appeared 36 times and scored one goal. His career then returned to the Spanish League when Girona proposed to him in September 2022. Together with Girona, Romeu appeared 34 times in all competitions scoring two goals and delivering the club based at Estadi Montilivi to finish in 10th position with 49 points.