Hungry and humble, Isaac Romero steps up to the plate in Sevilla

Youssef En-Nesyri, Real Sociedad. Photo: Fran Santiago/Getty Images” src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/5Ib1DYfovF7oVX8uLKnZvw–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU3Ng–/https://media.zenfs.com/en/theguardian_763/82725585e2a9f40f94b 6cd71c4e52da5″ data-src= “https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/5Ib1DYfovF7oVX8uLKnZvw–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU3Ng–/https://media.zenfs.com/en/theguardian_763/82725585e2a9f40f94b6cd7 1c4e52da5″/>

In December 2023, the day before the match, the manager of a team in Spain’s fourth tier is assembling his squad. He reminds them of his plan: The bus will leave at 6am and depart 230km away at 11.30am, stopping to pick up the players on the way and put up a video. It includes every goal scored by the opposition striker: 11 goals from 13 matches, and the centre-back soon realizes that none of them are scored. Instead, Sevilla B striker Isaac Romero at the top of the screen does it all. itself. “It was unreal, absolutely unreal,” the defender recalls. “You could say he should have been in the first team and that’s what happened. On fire.”

This sounds easy, but it wasn’t. “I never imagined this,” Isaac says. He played in front of several hundred people that morning and failed to score. The next time he scored there were 12,581 people there. The next time is 13,092. And a week later, 36,640 people went wild when he checked his chest, turned, whipped it between the legs of an Osasuna defender and curled it into the corner with a perfect strike. As he left this Saturday after a grueling 85 minutes on the pitch beating Real Sociedad, Sánchez Pizjuán stood to applaud him and shout the name of their new, unlikely hero.

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Things have changed for him and for them. December would be Isaac’s penultimate match against the club’s B team, Sevilla Atlético. Two days earlier the first team had lost to Mallorca: it was Sevilla’s ninth straight winless game, and a week later they took the lead to 10th, losing 3-0 to Getafe, dropping them to 17th on points. 18th. Isaac’s last game for Sevilla Atlético was against El Palo in January. Five days later, he had the chance to make his Alavés debut and immediately afterwards scored two goals in the cup against Getafe, one at home to Osasuna against stronger Girona and the winner against Atlético Madrid. He still hasn’t lasted 90 minutes, but he has five goals and one assist in his first seven games.

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He made another assist on Saturday as Sevilla defeated Real Sociedad 3-2 and moved seven points clear of the bottom three, with survival all but assured. Having failed to win in 10 matches, the team is now beaten one in six against Real Madrid; But Isaac’s volley, which could have won, was superbly saved by Andriy Lunin, who Diario de Sevilla say is the man most do not have. I didn’t hear about him being the “soul” of the team until a month ago. He is also a bit special, a natural finisher with a raw and unrefined side, a player who says Diego Costa is his idol, who hits everyone and chases everything, who gives “everything until I can give no more”. His manager, Quique Sánchez Flores, insists that he is a player who transforms the entire team: “It is a path they will all follow.”

It hasn’t been the most natural, direct way: it’s justThe child of the B team makes an impact on the A team, not least because Isaac is not a child at all. He is the son of a World Cup champion, he is 23 years old but he is too good for Segunda B.

He couldn’t foresee this. Neither could anyone else. If Isaac had his way this summer, he would probably be playing in the minor leagues; If it weren’t for problems with paperwork this winter, the club’s inability to find a striker to turn things around, he’d probably still be playing in the fourth round. This is of course another case study in overcoming adversity, but it’s also about luck, good and bad, and football’s ability to somehow find a way.

Romero was born in Lebrija, a town of 27,432 inhabitants, 60 km (37 mi) south of Seville; his grandparents had moved here in the late 1970s, when the marshes on the left bank of the Guadalquivir were drained to create arable land, and he is still there. their lives. His father, Antonio, played for Atlético Sanluqueño, reached the second division with Xerez and was the kitman of the local team Atlético Antoniano. His mother, Macarena, runs the bar at the club. Isaac also played for them and helped them win promotion. regional al-Andalus to spain tercera department. played this season against He beat them 2-0 in Segunda B and failed to score. Now he has scored against Girona and Atlético and is on his way to the Bernabéu.

When he helped remove Antoniano, Isaac had traveled to Seville and Cádiz and back. He joined Sevilla as a child but left when he moved to 11-11. He spent 18 months in Cádiz, but that didn’t work either: he was too far from home. He returned to Antoniano when he was 19, but his coach, Francisco José Cordero, who saw him grow and form and switched him to a centre-back, was convinced he could make it and called Sevilla. Sevilla Atlético’s assistant coach Carlos Marchena didn’t just go to watch him play; Marchena, who is 39 and recently retired, a former World Cup champion, still attends every session and absolutely loves football, went and played against him. He turned to Isaac, turning the training into a real test. Finally he too was convinced.

Isaac, who came from regional amateur football at the age of 19, was coming late, although there was something in his development that set him apart. The year was 2018 and he initially joined Sevilla C, promoted to the B team, but suffered recurring shoulder problems, suffered a broken leg and time passed. He joined the first team this summer during pre-season. However, José Luis Mendilibar wanted a proven, professional player. It wasn’t like Romero could be used occasionally either: because he had just turned 23, if he was to join the first team it had to be permanent: he was too old to continue his registration with the B team and move to both sides. Sevilla transferred Mariano Díaz to replace him. There was no staff quota left.

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Isaac was on the verge of leaving the second division permanently – Albacete wanted him – only for Sevilla’s sporting director Victor Orta to persuade him and his father to stay and advised patience. But even when it came to the winter window, Flores made it clear publicly that he no longer had any faith in strikers Mariano or Rafa Mir, who had just five starts in the league and two goals between them, and Fernando’s departure was allowed. They were asked to add another player, which seemed unlikely to be Isaac.

This is where luck intervenes. The transfer of Robert Bozenik from Boavista failed despite passing a medical, and a subsequent attempt to sign David Datro Fofana (which appeared to be doomed) failed due to Chelsea reaching their external loan line. These were not the only deals that could not be made. Flores said Rafa Mir and Mariano are still around, but it could happen if they weren’t; “You either reach the level or you don’t play,” he said, claiming that “some people interpret the demands differently.” Youssef En-Nesyri was at the Africa Cup of Nations, Lucas Ocampos had to play a false nine and the team was in crisis. And so it was: there were 26 minutes against Alavés and then the explosion happened.

A new idol had descended, but he had been there from the beginning.

Celta Vigo 1-0 Almería, Valencia 2-2 Real Madrid, Getafe 3-3 Las Palmas, Rayo Vallecano 1-1 Cádiz, Sevilla 3-2 Real Sociedad, Athletic Bilbao 0-0 Barcelona, ​​Real Mallorca 1-0 Girona , Atletico Madrid 2-1 Real Betis, Villarreal 5-1 Granada

“We didn’t discover anyone; We saw the kids in training and picked them, that’s all,” says Flores. “I love Isaac because he does everything you ask of him. It fills us with energy. We are so lucky to have him with us and he is so humble which makes him even greater. He teaches the whole group a lesson in humility. It is emotional to see young people there. We were young once. Aries open a door, but they do the work; “They are wonderful.”

“He brought hunger to Seville; The team needed it and it proved to be contagious,” insisted former manager Joaquín Caparrós. According to Diego Simeone, he is “everything a coach looks for”. Even Spain’s coach Luis de la Fuente describes him as “a boy I love very much”. Everyone does. En-Nesyri admitted this weekend that life with Isaac was “comfortable” for all of them, but especially for her. Their partnership has developed nicely since the Moroccan’s return from Afcon, where he was saved by the Lebrija youngster; A headline on Sunday morning sums it up: “What a fine striker Sevilla has!”

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“More than just a good player, Isaac is a good teammate, a good lad, extremely humble, extremely hard-working and ultimately luck favors people like that,” says midfielder Oliver Torres. “He waited for the moment: he is helping us and I hope he can continue to help us for a very long time. We will be there to hug him every time he scores a goal. The truth is that it is a great discovery for everyone.”

So almost everyone. In December, some defensemen already knew: They had seen Isaac Romero on their screens.