Luka Romero Bezzana (born 18 November 2004) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

and winger for

Liga MX Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divis ...

club

Cruz Azul Club de Futbol Cruz Azul S.A. de C.V., commonly referred to as Cruz Azul, is a professional association football, football club based in Mexico City, Mexico. It competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football league system, Mexican footba ...

. Born in Mexico, he represented

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

at the youth international level. Coming through the youth system, Romero made his first-team debut with

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

aged 15 years and 219 days, becoming the youngest player to play in a top five European league. After alternating in

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

between Mallorca's first team and

B team B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It represent ...

, Romero joined Serie A side

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

in 2021. His first goal in 2022 made him the first 2004-born player to score in the Italian top flight. He joined

AC Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

on a free transfer in 2023.

Early life

Native to

Victoria de Durango Durango (, ) is the capital and largest city of the northern Mexican state of Durango and the seat of the municipality of Durango. It has a population of 616,068 as of the 2020 census with 688,697 living in the municipality. The city's officia ...

, Mexico, to Argentine parents, Romero moved to

Villanueva de Córdoba Villanueva de Córdoba is a city located in the province of Córdoba, Spain. , the city has a population of 9,599 inhabitants. The city is located in Andalusia, southern Spain, close to the capital of the province of Córdoba. See also * List of ...

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

, Spain, at the age of three. He moved to

Formentera Formentera (, ) is a Spanish island located in the Mediterranean Sea, which belongs to the Balearic Islands autonomous community (Spain) together with Mallorca, Menorca, and Ibiza. Formentera is the smallest and most southerly island of the ...

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago forms a Provinces of Spain, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain, ...

at the age of seven, and started to play at

Ibiza Ibiza (; ; ; #Names and pronunciation, see below) or Iviza is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of th ...

-based

Sant Jordi Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the R ...

. In 2011, Romero had a trial with

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, but could not sign as he was under the age of 10 and did not live in the area. In 2015, at the age of ten, he signed an eight-year youth contract with

. In his first four years, Romero scored 230 goals in 108 matches.

Club career

Mallorca

Romero was called up to train with the main squad of Mallorca by manager

Vicente Moreno Vicente Moreno Peris (born 26 October 1974) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder, and is currently the manager of La Liga club Osasuna. He spent most of his career with Xerez, appearing in 412 offici ...

on 5 June 2020. Eleven days later, he was included in the list for a

match against

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

after being given special authorization at the age of 15 years and 221 days, but remained an unused substitute in the 1–0 away loss. Romero played his first match with Mallorca on 24 June, replacing

Iddrisu Baba Iddrisu Baba Mohammed (born 22 January 1996) is a Ghanaian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for club Almería and the Ghana national team. Club career Born in Accra, Baba moved to Spain at an early age and joined RC ...

late into a 0–2 away defeat against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

. Aged 15 years and 219 days, he broke Sansón's record for the youngest player to ever play a professional match in La Liga. He also broke the age record for the five top European leagues which was held by

Kalman Gerencseri Kalman Gerencseri (9 January 1945 – 23 August 2023) was a French footballer who played as midfielder. He is the youngest player to play in the French first division, making his debut on 12 August 1960 at the age of 15 years, 7 months and 12 da ...

since 1960. Romero started the 2020–21 campaign with the main squad, but also appeared with the reserves in

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

on some occasions. He scored his first senior goals on 1 November, netting a brace with the B-side in a 3–0 away win against Llosetense. Romero scored his first professional goal on 29 November, netting the fourth in a 4–0

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

home routing of Logroñés.

Lazio

On 19 August 2021, Romero was signed by

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

. On the opening day of the 2021–22 season, he became Lazio's youngest ever player when he made his debut at the age of 16 years, 9 months and 10 days in their 6–1 victory over

Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguri ...

. On 17 October, Romero was included in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''s 60 best young talents in world football born in 2004. He scored his first goal for Lazio on 10 November 2022, the winner of a 1–0 win against

Monza Monza (, ; ; , locally ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the Lambro, River Lambro, a tributary of the Po (river), River Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the province of Mo ...

, becoming the first player born in 2004 to score in Serie A.

AC Milan

On 6 July 2023,

announced the signing of Romero on a free transfer, with contract until 30 June 2027. On 24 July 2023, Romero made his debut for Milan in a friendly game against

at the

Rose Bowl Rose Bowl or Rosebowl may refer to: * Rose Bowl Game, an annual American college football game * Rose Bowl (stadium), Pasadena, California, site of the football game, and the home stadium of the UCLA Football team * Rose Bowl (cricket ground), West ...

, scoring a goal from outside the penalty area, making the score 2–0 in the eventual 3–2 loss for Milan. Despite the promising start, however, Romero's playing opportunities quickly diminished as the club signed

Christian Pulisic Christian Mate Pulisic (born September 18, 1998) is an American professional Association football, soccer player who plays as a Midfielder#Winger, winger for club AC Milan and the United States men's national soccer team, United States natio ...

Noah Okafor Noah Arinzechukwu Okafor (born 24 May 2000) is a Swiss professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward and Midfielder#Winger, winger for Italian club AC Milan and the Switzerland national foot ...

and

Samuel Chukwueze Samuel Chimerenka Chukwueze (; born 22 May 1999) is a Nigerian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a winger (association football), right winger for Serie A club AC Milan and the Nigeria national football team, Nigeria n ...

in the same month as Romero, and changed the primary starting line-up formation from a

4–2–3–1 In association football, the formation of a team refers to the position players take in relation to each other on a pitch. As association football is a fluid and fast-moving game, a player's position (with the exception of the goalkeeper) in a ...

, in which Romero may play either centrally as an

or as an inverted winger on the right, to a 4–3–3, wherein Romero can only play in the latter position. On 27 September 2023, Romero played his first competitive game for Milan, a 3–1 away win against Cagliari, in which he came on as a substitute for Christian Pulisic in the second half.

Loan to Almería

On 22 January 2024, Romero returned to Spain and joined La Liga club

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of Almería, province of the same name. It lies in southeastern Iberian Peninsula, Iberia on the Mediterranean S ...

on loan until the end of the 2023–24 season. On 24 February, he scored a brace in a 2–2 draw against

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

Loan to Alavés

On 23 July 2024, Romero moved to fellow La Liga side Alavés on loan for the entire 2024–25 campaign. His loan-spell was cut short and he returned to AC Milan after six months on 17 January 2025.

Cruz Azul

On 18 January 2025, Romero moved to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, the country where he was born and joined

club

, for an estimated €3.3 million fee, signing a five-year contract. On 25 January 2025, Romero made his debut for Cruz Azul in a 1–1 draw against

Puebla Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...

, replacing

Ángel Sepúlveda Ángel Baltazar Sepúlveda Sánchez (born 15 February 1991) is a Mexican professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for Liga MX club Cruz Azul and the Mexico national football team, Mexic ...

in the second half. He scored his first goal for Cruz Azul on 31 January 2025, netting the first of a 3–2 away win against

Tijuana Tijuana is the most populous city of the Mexican state of Baja California, located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality, the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area and the most popu ...

International career

Born in Mexico to an Argentine family, he moved to Spain at a young age. Romero holds all three passports, and is currently eligible to represent all three senior national teams. He represented Argentina internationally at under-15 level in the

2019 South American U-15 Championship The 2019 South American Under-15 Football Championship was the 9th edition of the South American Under-15 Football Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the CONMEBOL for the men's under-15 national teams ...

, where they finished runners-up, scoring two goals in six matches. In March 2020, Romero was called up to represent Argentina's under-17s at the

Montaigu Tournament The Montaigu Tournament () is an international association football competition that is contested by under-16 national teams and clubs. The tournament is also known as Mondial Minimes. The games are held in stadiums located in the Vendée depart ...

, but the competition was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Romero received his first-ever call up to

's senior team by manager

Lionel Scaloni Lionel Sebastián Scaloni (, ; born 16 May 1978) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who is the current manager of the Argentina national team. Under his leadership, Argentina achieved the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Scalon ...

in March 2022. On 26 March 2022, Romero played for the under-20 team in a 2–2 draw against the United States U20s. On 3 May 2023, Romero was included in the

Argentina U20 The Argentina national under-20 football team is the representative of Argentina in FIFA-sponsored tournaments that pertain to that age level. Argentina is the most successful nation in the FIFA U-20 World Cup, winning the competition a record si ...

squad that took part in the

2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 23rd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth Association football, football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since i ...

, which took place in

. They were knocked out in the round of 16 by Nigeria U20.

Personal life

Romero's father,

Diego Diego is a Spanish masculine given name. The Portuguese equivalent is Diogo. The etymology of Diego is disputed, with two major origin hypotheses: ''Tiago'' and ''Didacus''. The name also has several patronymic derivations, listed below. ...

, was a professional footballer. His

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...

brother Tobías is also a footballer, and plays as a goalkeeper.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Cruz Azul *

CONCACAF Champions Cup The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, a ...

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

References

External links

Lazio official profile
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Romero, Luka 2004 births Living people People from Durango City Mexican people of Argentine descent Sportspeople of Argentine descent Spanish people of Argentine descent Naturalised citizens of Spain Argentine men's footballers Mexican men's footballers Spanish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Tercera División players Serie A players RCD Mallorca players RCD Mallorca B players SS Lazio players AC Milan players UD Almería players Deportivo Alavés players Cruz Azul footballers Argentina men's youth international footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Mexican expatriate men's footballers Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Mexican expatriate sportspeople in Spain Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy 21st-century Argentine sportsmen 21st-century Mexican sportsmen 21st-century Spanish sportsmen CONCACAF Champions Cup–winning players