Tottenham Hotspur star Cristian Romero has opened the door to a summer exit. The Argentina international has been heavily linked with a summer switch to Atletico Madrid.
Romero joined Spurs from Atalanta in 2021, first on loan and then permanently. He has played more than 100 times for the club, though injuries have restricted his involvement – especially this season, when he has been one of a number of regulars spending time on the sidelines during a challenging campaign under Ange Postecoglou.
Monday night’s defeat at home to Nottingham Forest was the South American’s 18th league outing of the season. His biggest absence came when he suffered a hamstring injury in December, keeping him out of action for more than two months.
Since returning in early March, Romero has captained the team for four of their six league matches. The most recent of those, against Forest on Monday, saw the Londoners unable to fully recover after early goals from Elliot Anderson and Chris Wood set the visitors on their way to a 2-1 win.
With skipper Son Heung-min absent, Romero also wore the armband for the Europa League quarter-final triumph away at Eintracht Frankfurt. European glory remains a target, but a recent interview suggested the defender wasn’t ready to make predictions over what might come after that.
“We’re in the Europa League semi-finals, and I want to finish the season on a high note,” Romero is quoted as saying by Los Edul. “After that, we’ll see. My focus is always on growing and looking for new places to continue developing.”
As previously reported by Mirror Football, Atletico Madrid are among the clubs keen on the defender. They could even push to land the player ahead of the Club World Cup in June, where they have been drawn in a group with Paris Saint-Germain, Botafogo and Seattle Sounders.
Romero played 45 minutes against Forest before he and fellow centre-back Micky van de Ven made way. However, manager Postecoglou said it was always part of the plan to manage the minutes of players with recent injury problems as his team gets in shape for the first leg of their European semi-final against Bodo/Glimt on May 1.
“It was pre-planned for van de Ven and Romero to play 45 minutes and the same with Kulusevski and Odobert who have not played in quite a while,” Postecoglou told Sky Sports. “Everyone got through it ok I guess. That is one thing but we want to maintain momentum but we missed that opportunity.
“It is a bit of a balancing act. We have got to be ready for Thursday week, that is the big game for us. We have to have all of our players healthy and in good condition.”
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