Reports: Roma Sign Julen Jon Guerrero From Real Madrid

While we’re all waiting on pins and needles for Tiago Pinto to bite the bullet and finally sign one of Gianluca Scamacca or Alvaro Morata, it appears that both he and AS Roma Academy Manager Vincenzo Vergine have pulled off a slightly less significant signing: that of Julen Jon Guerrero, a Spanish youth international who until recently was plying his wares at Real Madrid.

Guerrero is best known as the son of Julen Guerrero López, Athletic Bilbao legend and current manager of the Spain U17 side. Yet the son of the legend looks to have quite a bit of spark to him as well if the highlight reels backed by EDM remixes of Trap Queen have anything to say about it:

Guerrero is an attacking midfielder in the mold of his father, using his on-pitch intelligence to find space well between the lines. While he never broke through to the senior side with Real Madrid, the 19-year-old Spaniard has been slowly but surely marching his way through the Spanish youth team apparatus, garnering himself a spot in Spain’s U-18 team and appearing 18 times for Segunda División side Amorebieta on loan last season.

An interesting wrinkle to this signing is that Roma is reportedly not paying any fee whatsoever to Madrid and instead agreeing to evenly split any future resale value with Los Merengues. That makes this signing a low-risk, high-reward deal for the Giallorossi, enabling José Mourinho to not feel pressure to play Guerrero specifically due to some outlandish transfer fee.

The signing does beg the question of where exactly Guerrero will spend most of his time in the 2023/2024 season; if he’s being brought in as primarily a Primavera reinforcement, does that imply that Mourinho may be pulling in more youth players into the senior squad? Or will Guerrero join as a member of the first team from day one, pushing Roma’s youth squad down a rung and getting a chance to establish himself in the attacking midfield rotation?

There’s no way to know the answer to that question just yet, but as the transfer market and summer training camps continue, it will certainly be interesting to see what role, if any, Guerrero will play in Mourinho’s tactics. He may not be the flashy striker signing Romanisti are waiting for, but still — welcome, Julen!