Renowned football transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano has revealed that his iconic “Here we go” catchphrase was never a carefully planned branding strategy but a spontaneous remark that eventually became the most recognisable phrase in football transfer reporting.
Romano made the revelation while speaking during Trevor Noah’s World Cup Watch Party, explaining that the phrase first emerged nearly a decade ago during his coverage of a long-running Manchester United transfer saga.
According to the Italian journalist, he had spent weeks posting update after update on the deal before it was finally completed.
“Many people think I planned it as a catchphrase so people would remember my transfer news, but that wasn’t the case at all,” Romano said.
“I kept tweeting about the same transfer story over and over again. I don’t even remember which transfer it was because it happened eight or nine years ago. It was a very long negotiation, and when it was finally completed, I simply tweeted, ‘OK, here we go,’ because the story was finally over.”
Romano said he never expected those three words to become synonymous with confirmed football transfers.
However, he noticed that football fans quickly embraced the phrase, with supporters of different clubs asking him to use it whenever their teams were close to completing new signings.
“I started seeing comments like, ‘Can you say “Here we go” for Arsenal?’, ‘Can you say it for Manchester United?’, ‘Can you say it for Barcelona?’ I thought, ‘Why not?’ So I kept using it,” he explained.
Over time, Romano said the phrase evolved into more than just a catchy expression. It became his personal seal of confirmation, signalling that every aspect of a transfer had been agreed and the deal was officially done.
“I realised fans needed a clear confirmation. Before ‘Here we go,’ people would read reports or watch television saying a club was close to signing a player. But when I say ‘Here we go,’ it means I’ve confirmed that everything is agreed and the transfer is completed.”
Today, “Here we go” has become one of football’s most recognised catchphrases, with millions of fans around the world associating it with Romano’s confirmation that a transfer deal has been successfully concluded.