Last year, it seemed like Cristian Romero would leave Tottenham Hotspur. Even before the season ended, he was pretty openly flirting with a transfer to La Liga, and Atletico Madrid were highly interested in adding him to their defense, with the characte fit with Diego Simeone seemingly perfect. But after winning the Europa League with Romero as the Player of the Tournament, Spurs were able to convince Romero to stay.
Even though they fired Ange Postecoglou, with whom Romero had a great relationship, Spurs were able to convince him on the project with Thomas Frank. And it most likely helped a lot that they made him the captain to succeed club legend Son Heung-min, who wisely rode off into the sunset with LAFC in MLS, avoiding the chaos that would follow.
While Cristian Romero himself has been partially responsible for the disappointing 2025/26 season at the N17, it is hard not to feel as though Spurs failed him by convincing him to stay then saddling him with Frank and a full on disaster of a season.
Cristian Romero's release clause exists?
Now, Romero is back in the transfer rumor mill, and while the reports of an active release clause to La Liga giants Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atletico Madrid are not on base, Fabrizio Romano's clarified that there was a handshake agreement between Daniel Levy and the star center back. But even that has now been complicated by some very strange information from Romero's own father.
Speaking in an interview with Argentinian outlet Cadena 3, Victor "Quito" Romero stated that there is a release clause in Cristian Romero's contract, "He has two more years on his contract with Tottenham and a very high release clause. The English club won't let him leave for free; it's between 50 and 70 million dollars,"
There are a couple of things that are bizarre about this claim, though. Firstly, Fab and others have denied the reports of an active release clause in Romero's contract. Secondly, Transfermarkt states that Romero is under contract until the 2028/29 season, which means he would have three more years left on his contract after this season - not the two that Romero's father claims.
The last strange anecdote from the interview is that Romero's dad stated that he would like his son to return to Belgrano, the club of his childhood in Cordoba, Argentina. Apparently rumors in the local media have linked him to that move, but why would Romero already go back to Argentina at 27 when the top La Liga clubs are linked? And also...if Tottenham have a release clause in his contract of 50-70 million dollars (or euros...or pounds), would Begrano really able to even remotely afford that?
But there is one thing about the interview from Romero's father that Tottenham fans can take away, maybe two. The first is that Tottenham are not going to sell Romero for anything less than their internal price point, since they have him under contract and don't really have to. They'd only have to if Romero went on strike, which would be crazy for a captain to do, or if they get relegated. That point has seeminlgy been communicated clearly to the Romeros, regardless of the release clause talk.
And the second possible takeaway is that Romero sounds like he's trending out of Tottenham. Spurs fans can read it in his body language and statements about the dysfunction at the club on social media, but it's not like his dad doused cold water on the rumors. He never said his son was happy at Spurs or downplayed the rumors, if anything, he fanned them in a weird way by bringing up his childhood club in Argentina.