David Romero’s route to Parma began beside the Paraná River in Corrientes and now brings him to San Siro, where Alberto Gilardino will take charge of the Gialloblù for the first time. The 23-year-old Argentine striker has scored twice in four appearances and is set to carry much of the attacking responsibility against Cristian Chivu’s Inter.
For Gilardino, it is a return to a stadium that belongs to an earlier part of his football life. He faced Chivu in the 2007-08 derby but did not score; now he arrives as Parma coach, with Romero leading the line after the club paid Tigres €8.5 million for him.
Quick facts
- Romero is 23 and has two goals in his first four matches.
- Parma signed him from Tigres for €8.5 million.
- He scored 40 goals in 55 youth matches for Talleres.
- His loan spell at Unión La Calera produced seven goals in 11 games.
- He won the 2022 Torneo de l’Alcudia with Argentina’s Under-20 side.
His birthplace has become part of the story. Corrientes, close to Paraguay and bordered by the Paraná, is a city whose name evokes currents and movement. Romero first played there before leaving as a boy for Talleres in Córdoba, around 850 kilometres to the west.
At Talleres he was known as “El Rulo”, a reference to the dark curls that regularly fell across his face. His father had been an amateur goalkeeper, and Romero initially enjoyed throwing himself around between the posts, coming home muddy and with cuts on his knees.
The move to centre-forward came through the simplest of youth-team needs: an empty place in attack. Romero volunteered, and the choice changed his path. In a landmark campaign for the Talleres academy, he struck 40 times in 55 outings, setting a record at that level.
Senior football did not immediately follow the same rhythm. Between 2021 and January 2024, he managed only four goals in 44 first-team appearances for Talleres, despite gaining attention with Argentina’s youth sides.
In 2022 he was part of Javier Mascherano’s Argentina Under-20 squad that won the Torneo de l’Alcudia. Valentín Barco, Agustín Giay and Nico Paz were also among the group, and Romero has since crossed paths with Paz again in Italy.
His breakthrough required a change of country. In January 2024, Walter Lemma, who had coached Romero in the Talleres youth system, called with an offer from Chilean top-flight club Unión La Calera and promised him a starting place.
Romero accepted after turning down approaches from Instituto, Racing de Córdoba, Central Córdoba and Tigres. He said his lack of playing time at Talleres had held him back and that he needed a different environment. At Unión La Calera, he answered with seven goals in 11 matches before eventually joining Tigres in the summer of 2025.
His form there convinced Parma to move. Romero scored 16 goals across almost two seasons with the Mexican side, where Mateo Retegui had previously made his own mark before becoming Serie A’s leading scorer in 2025 and then moving to Al-Qadisiya.
Romero’s game is built on speed in both his running and finishing. Comparisons with Lautaro Martínez have reached him, although the two Argentines come from very different corners of the country: Martínez from coastal Bahía Blanca, Romero from river-bound Corrientes.
“It is an honour to be compared with him,” Romero has said. “My strength is power, and I like making runs into space.” His own idol is Luis Suárez.
Parma’s visit to Inter is therefore more than a difficult away fixture for a new coach. It is the next test for a striker who has had to leave home, leave his club and wait for opportunity before reaching Serie A. At San Siro, Romero will try to turn that long journey into the kind of afternoon the championship remembers.
