“Today. Today you become a hero.”
Javier Mascherano’s encouraging words to his team-mate echo in the ‘almost’ empty stadium of RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne, Germany, as one creature in the shadows reflects on the journey to that place. And even though these words came much earlier in Brazil, tonight they echo almost ruefully back to a place of joy for this individual 1400 kms away. All the way to the Friends Arena Stadium in Solna of Sweden.
That’s quite a journey, but as the Doctor of the beloved UK show of half a century would say, it’s not always about space.
Sometimes, as in the case of Sergio Germán Romero, it’s about time.
I have always been intrigued by the standby position in theatre. Someone who has to be backstage, made up in their costume at all time and practicing warm ups so that a smooth show can happen if the original actor cannot perform their role.
What would go through that person’s head as the play went on? Frustration? Hope? Anger? Sorrow?
And I wonder what one such standby felt as he cut a haunted figure in an almost empty stadium watching his team lose ground and get sent out of a competition that had given him one of his favourite moments in his career.
Yet again, forced to be a helpless bystander in one more crushed dream.
For that is the tragedy of the standby - more a sorrowful tale of a goalkeeper left in the shadows.
As I gaze into the depths of google images back to May 2017 (today’s Manchester United fan finds himself drawn to the past a lot), there’s a heart-warming picture of Sergio Romero and his national compatriot, Marcus Rojo, in full suited attire and too often injured to take part in such brief runs of glory for Manchester United in a post-Fergie era, lifting up the Europa League trophy while the rest look on in the backdrop as borders between the bench and those on the field disappear in joy. David De Gea is there as well, not the lead on the big stage for once. A memorable moment for Romero in a list of many too often snatched away.
For every other major final or match United won or lost, even if Romero played a huge part in the journey – he would not be there for the crescendo. Looking on, he saw as they were dropped out of Europe by Liverpool in 2015/16, next year Chelsea discarded them from the FA Cup in the 6th Round before replicating the effort in the FA Cup Final the year after. Even for the recent precious few joys of FA and League Cups, it was De Gea who wore the gloves. Not Romero.
27th July 2020 was a significant day for Sergio Romero as it marked five years since under the watchful eye of his former AZ manager Louis Van Gaal, he joined a certain club trying to recover in the years after a domestic dominance unrivalled in modern English football had come to an end with the departure of their long standing manager.
Fergie time was finally over and Romero came in the extended wake a year after a World Cup where he had shone and justified Mascherano’s earlier quote by saving two crucial penalty kicks during Argentina’s run to their first Final in 24 years.
The 28-year-old goalkeeper from Argentina had, after some journeyman years across Netherlands, Italy and France; settled in the British Isles looking onto the field as a certain Spanish counterpart started emerging into his glory days. In the coming half decade, curiously the Argentinian despite being second choice at club level, remained a mainstay for his country, a dependable one in a time where Argentina and good goalkeeping weren’t often in the same sentence - currently sitting agonizingly close to a century of international caps which is unlikely to be fulfilled.
Interestingly, David De Gea was yet to cement that in the Spanish national team when Romero joined, being in the pecking order behind extraordinary characters such as Iker Casillas and Pep Reina. Even now, he sits at only 41 caps to Romero’s 96.
Such dichotomy of careers between two players at the same club is a puzzle that can be solved by one word. Competition. At the national stage, Romero had none. At Manchester United, he was never that to De Gea.
5 years later and at the age of 33, with 59 appearances across domestic and continental tournaments at the highest level (keeping an impressive 40 clean sheets) – Romero looks like the forgotten man caught between the present and the future, and the clear loser of a contest that seemed to have been decided for him. The match was rigged from the start.
His current ‘challengers’ have achieved milestones of their own. 29-year-old David De Gea completed 400 appearances for Manchester United this season even as the on-loan Sheffield United maestro, 23-year-old Dean Henderson, claimed notice from the population as the upcoming young goalie challenging the veteran keeper at Manchester United. While at the national stage, De Gea is still no. 1 for his country – a title lost in the ruins of time for Romero, as the next generation of keepers have arrived in the form of Porto’s Agustín Marchesín, Udinese’s Juan Musso and Boca Juniors’ Esteban Andrada among others.
So again, I ask – where does that leaves the aging Romero?
Unlike so many ugly duckling stories, the story was always going to be written in a different way for him. He wasn’t the young upstart out to threaten the main goalie. He was just the older reliable no 2.
It’s strange for people of the stature of Romero to stay as a No 2 for so many years. Most goalkeepers get frustrated at the lack of game time and transfer away like Jasper Cillesen who moved to Valencia from Barcelona last year after 5 league appearances across 4 years at Camp Nou.
Romero, similar to Cillesen with Ter Stegen, would have been frustrated to see De Gea continuously starting – for more than any of the outfield players, unless an injury happens, goalkeepers do not find themselves being called up from the bench if not for the rare occasion of rotation and competition overload.
Goalkeepers are called the loneliest creatures on a football field, but then what do you call the man forgotten in the shadows?
For him, there were additional strokes of frustration when it seemed every time an important match came up (even in the competitions he was regularly starting in), it would be De Gea who would be called up. And too often he had to watch on as the team was sent out after a promising run.
And most recently on a quiet night in Cologne, he sat in quiet reflection as after being mainstays in both FA Cup and Europa League runs that led them to the semis, his manager decided to trust the star rather than the excellent standby. And for both, they finished the journey there in bitter disappointment. Was Romero cursed by his absence?
Everyone will tell you in the end, it’s about the team. And it is. But for once during the match, it would have crossed Romero’s mind, as if like a broken record since that fateful day in 2017 - would he ever get the limelight again like that beautiful night in Solna?
And as a youngster returns from a heralded loan to challenge a superstar in decline – is this Romero’s curtain call in a play he never got to truly perform?
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