Oriol Romeu left Spain as a child and returns as a man, at 30 years old and seasoned in the Premier League, the Bundesliga and even the Champions League, a competition he won with Chelsea in 2012, although with a residual participation. He arrives to reinforce the Girona midfield for the next three seasons, which was missing the piece that would provide balance and experience at the highest level. The need for Míchel's men increased with the injuries to Yangel Herrera and Ramón Terrats, which made the signing of Romeu an emergency. He had one year left on his contract, so, although the transfer figures have not yet come out, they will not have been a big problem. He has already trained this morning, he will be presented at 1:00 p.m. in Montilivi and could even make his debut this weekend against Mallorca.
Negotiations with Southampton, the club where he played for the last seven seasons, were easy due to the footballer's reputation and his desire to return to Spain. However, an injury to Romeo Lavia, who takes his position in the Saints' midfield, came close to breaking the deal. Finally, the movement was completed and Romeu closes a stage that occupied the vast majority of his sporting career. He spent seven years at Southampton in which he played a total of 256 games, scoring eight goals and giving six assists. "I'm sad because it's over, but happy because it happened," the Catalan midfielder wrote on his Twitter account after his transfer was made official.
He is a much-loved footballer at Southampton, a team he came to captain and where he lived the best moments of his sports career. "For seven years of unwavering commitment and special memories, thank you," the club's official Twitter account posted. He leaves the saints in eighth position in the Premier League and arrives at a Girona that is 13th, with a single victory, the one achieved last week against Getafe.
The project, Míchel's role and the fact of being close to home were reasons enough to convince Oriol Romeu that it was time to return. To his quality and his indisputable ability to sacrifice in the pivot we must add his versatility, since he can also occupy a position in the center of the defense.
Although he started in the Espanyol youth academy, he soon changed the blue and white shirt for Barcelona's azulgrana. There he burned all the formative stages until, in 2011, he left the Barça subsidiary for Chelsea for more than four and a half million euros. With the London team he played 33 games in two seasons, becoming European champion in the first. He then went on loan, first to Valencia, then to Stuttgart, before the move that changed his career and allowed him to settle into the elite of European football once and for all: signing for Southampton in 2015, in exchange for seven million.
