As Argentine outlet La Nacion this week features a long interview with Boca Juniors goalkeeper Sergio Romero, there was many mentions of Manchester United.
La Nation were very interested in the player’s time at Old Trafford, both regarding his relationship with the likes of Louis van Gaal and José Mourinho, as well his the teammates in the squad at that time.
Romero was asked about the behaviour of dressing rooms in clubs that have so many stars. The goalkeeper claimed that was never a problem for Manchester United, as he actually had great treatment from the players who’d been at the club for years.
“They are not as difficult locker rooms as you might assume. Obviously egos are there and sometimes they clash, yes, it happens,” said Romero.
“I arrived at United and I saw Rooney and I said ‘paaaa, he’s a legend, he’s won everything’, and the madman welcomed me from day one and I told him: ‘Look, my English is terrible’. And he didn’t mind at all and always tried to help me. He asked me what I needed, he came to me every day… The same with Michael Carrick, top people who left their mark on the Premier League. People that if I send them a message today, they answer me and make themselves available.”
Romero also talked a little about Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was one of those with a big impact in the dressing room.
“Behind closed doors, he was the same as what you saw outside. Those things he said in the press, that he was God on earth and things like that, he was the same in the dressing room. He was like that 24 hours a day and in the group, all the time, he made you see that he was there. But with us, with the Argentinians, with Marquitos [Rojo], he had something different. Zlatan knew that we Argentinians were one way and Brazilians were another. He knew that if he bit us a little bit, he would lift us up and we wouldn’t fall.
“If he looked for us, he would find that competitive side of us. If he touched us, we would jump like boiled milk and that would empower everyone. He touched that fibre and he knew that we would respond as he demanded. More than once he thanked us, Marquitos and me, because he enjoyed training with us, because if he touched our hearts, we worked harder.
“And that rubbed off on the others. Because many times it happened that he would say something and they didn’t respond, on the contrary, many of them would get a puncture and the training would start to fall apart. Then he would look for Marquitos, me, the Serb Nemanja Matić, people with character, with personality, so that we would show up and the training would go up again.”
Sergio Romero joined Manchester United in a free move from Sampdoria in the summer of 2015. As back-up to David De Gea, he made 61 appearances for the club, most of them in cup competitions, including the Europa League.
The 26-year-old is now playing for Boca Juniors, and recently went through a peculiar situation, where he saved penalties which knocked-out his beloved Racing in the Copa Libertadores, explaining in the post-match interview that he was just doing his job.
