Breaking down Rômulo: an undiscovered Power Forward

As we’ve preached for a long time at SCOUTED, strikers are the most bust-to-boom profile in football nowadays.

Perhaps they always were, but the current football landscape highlights it more than ever: one month they’ll be valued at €3 million, the next their price has rocketed to ten-times that or more. A quickfire spate of four or five goals – or even just a couple of viral highlight moments – and that price pumps up, and up, and up.

As we’ve also preached for a long time at SCOUTED, strikers’ profiles are now just as important as their outputs. Clubs are increasingly keen to take punts on prospects with a certain set of skills in search of the next Haaland, the next Gyökeres, the next striker that will score them a lot of goals and make them even more money – see our first Archetype, the Power Forward. These players might not actually be scoring loads of goals right now, but clubs can see how they could, with the right support and environment.

Hold all that in your mind as I introduce Rômulo.

I know what you’re thinking... 23 years old, playing for Göztepe in Türkiye, only scored 10 goals this season – this guy isn’t worthy of a SCOUT NOTES deep dive, surely, Llew? My retort to that: hear me out. Pull up a chair and let me tell you why you should be paying attention to this obscure but fascinating forward.

In this edition of SCOUT NOTES:

• Romulo: an athleticism to fire the imagination...
• ...ball-striking to break the net...
• ...the movement of a Power Forward...
• ...the difference between link-and-spinners and pin-and-holders...
• ...and five more pages from Llew's notebook, including insight on Tyrique George and Josh Acheampong

Athleticism to fire the imagination

The first thing you’ll notice when watching Rômulo is his mix of size and speed. It’s difficult to miss, and even more so not to be taken aback by the big man’s locomotion.

I’m not overly keen on nor particularly competent at contemporary comparisons between players (this is a thinly veiled dig at the editor but I'll let it slide; if you know, you know - ed), but the Brazilian does remind me of Benjamin Šeško. His posture and gait probably make that connection for me. He’s listed at 6’3” tall (which looks accurate, even though these measurements often aren’t) and has a hunched look that is reminiscent of the Slovenian to my eye.