Oriol Romeu made a surprise return to Barcelona this summer, moving after a season at Girona. It reunites him with a close friend in captain Sergi Roberto, 12 years after Romeu left for Chelsea.
Romeu and Roberto both played under Luis Enrique at Barcelona B over a decade ago, and as Sport remember, were part of a wider group of friends that formed a strong bond together.
At the time, Romeu lived with Carles Planas and Marc Bartra, while Roberto shared accommodation with Marc Muniesa and Sergi Gomez. In addition, the likes of Ivan Balliu, Ruben Rochina, Cristian Tello, Thiago and Rafinha Alcantara share a close bond.
All were invited to Roberto’s wedding to Coral Simanovich in Israel, while most were in attendance at Gomez’s wedding this past summer too.
All of the mentioned above made it to top level football across the top five leagues in Europe, while Luis Enrique maintains it is the best group he has ever coached.
Thiago remains at Liverpool (Rafinha is now in Saudi Arabia), while Balliu, Roberto and Romeu are the only others playing at the top level currently. The Barcelona dressing room lost plenty of leadership and experience with Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba departing this summer, but Romeu should at least help with that.
