Rocco Romeo

Antonio Rocco Romeo (born March 25, 2000) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a centre-back for Vancouver FC.

Rocco Romeo
Personal information
Full name Antonio Rocco Romeo
Date of birth (2000-03-25) March 25, 2000
Place of birth Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Height 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Position(s) Centre-back
Team information
Current team
 Vancouver FC
Number 3
Youth career
Bolton Wanderers SC
0000–2014 Woodbridge Strikers
2014–2018 Toronto FC
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2016–2018 Toronto FC III 33 (1)
2016–2021 Toronto FC II 25 (1)
2019 → HB Køge (loan) 8 (0)
2020–2021 Toronto FC 0 (0)
2020–2021 → HB Køge (loan) 12 (0)
2021 → Valour FC (loan) 16 (2)
2022 Valour FC 23 (2)
2023– Vancouver FC 24 (0)
International career‡
2017 Canada U17 1 (0)
2018 Canada U20 3 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of October 6, 2023
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of November 10, 2018

Early life

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Romeo began playing youth soccer with Bolton Wanderers SC,[1] before moving on to the Woodbridge Strikers.[2]

Club career

In 2014, Romeo joined the Toronto FC youth system. He played 17 games for Toronto FC III in League1 Ontario during the 2016 season and 15 games during the 2017 season, scoring once against Toronto Skillz FC.[3]

On September 4, 2016, Romeo made his debut for Toronto FC II, the reserve team of Toronto FC, in the United Soccer League against Charlotte Independence. He came on as a 62nd minute substitute for Clément Simonin as Toronto FC II lost 5–1.[4] On September 15, 2017, Romeo signed his first professional contract, joining Toronto FC II on a permanent basis.[5] On January 31, 2019, Danish 1st Division club HB Køge announced that they had signed Romeo on a loan deal until June 30.[6]

On January 21, 2020, Romeo signed a first-team MLS deal with Toronto FC.[7] On August 13, HB Køge announced Romeo had returned to the club once again on loan.[8] He scored his first goal for Køge on October 6 in a cup match against Bispebjerg BK, also picking up a red card later in the same match.[9]

On July 30, 2021, he was loaned to Valour FC of the Canadian Premier League.[10] The next day he made his debut for Valour against FC Edmonton.[11] In the next match on August 4, he scored his first goal for Valour against Pacific FC.[12] Upon completion of the 2021 season, Romeo's option for the 2022 season was not picked up by Toronto, making him a free agent.[13]

In February 2022, Romeo signed with Valour FC on a permanent deal.[14]

Following the expiration of his contract with Valour, on January 16, 2023, Romeo joined newly-constituted side Vancouver FC on a free transfer.[15][16]

International career

Romeo has represented Canada at the 2017 CONCACAF U-17 Championship.[17] On October 24, 2018, he was named to the Canadian U20 squad for the 2018 CONCACAF U-20 Championship.[18] Romeo was named to the Canadian U-23 provisional roster for the 2020 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship on February 26, 2020,[19] however, the tournament was soon after postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[20]

Career statistics
As of October 6, 2023[21]
Club Season League Domestic Cup League Cup Continental Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Toronto FC III 2016[22] League1 Ontario 170—10—180
2017[23] 151—20—171
2018[24] 10—00—10
Total 331003000361
Toronto FC II 2016 USL 10———10
2017 20———20
2018 120———120
2019 USL League One 101———101
Total 251000000251
HB Køge (loan) 2018–19 Danish 1st Division 8000——80
2020–21 12021——141
Total 200210000221
Valour FC (loan) 2021 Canadian Premier League 16220——182
Valour FC 2022 23210——242
Total 394300000424
Vancouver FC 2022 [[Canadian Premier League 24010——250
Career total 13966130001486

Honours
Toronto FC III

References
  1. "Rocco Romeo profile". Canadian Soccer Association.
  2. Singh, Michael (March 3, 2021). "Exclusive: Toronto FC's Rocco Romeo makes his case to crack Canada's Olympic roster". Waking the Red.
  3. "Match Recap: Toronto FC III 7 - 0 Toronto Skillz". League1 Ontario. September 3, 2017. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  4. Steve Buffery (January 21, 2020). "Toronto FC sign Rocco Romeo as homegrown player". Toronto Sun.
  5. Adam Krueger (September 15, 2017). "Dunn, Okello, and Romeo sign first pro deals". Toronto FC. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  6. "Canadisk forsvarer på plads i HB Køge" [Canadian defender in place in HB Køge]. HB Køge (in Danish). January 31, 2019. Archived from the original on February 1, 2019. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  7. Tom Bogert (January 21, 2020). "Toronto FC sign Canada U-20 defender Rocco Romeo to Homegrown deal". Major League Soccer.
  8. "HB Køge lejer gammel kending i Toronto FC". August 13, 2020.
  9. Jensen, Anders (October 6, 2020). "Ny pokalsensation udeblev for Serie 1-hold" [No cup sensation was absent for Serie 1 teams]. bold.dk (in Danish).
  10. Tait, Ed (July 30, 2021). ""He's good on the ball, likes to play out of the back but most importantly it's his defensive quality and aggression we really like." Valour adds Canadian defender Rocco Romeo on loan". Valour FC.
  11. O'Connor-Clarke, Charlie (August 1, 2021). "Match Analysis: FC Edmonton 3-1 Valour FC".
  12. "Pacific FC gets comeback win over Valour FC, steals 1st place in CPL standings". CBC. August 5, 2021.
  13. "Toronto FC Announce Year-End Roster Decisions". Toronto FC. December 1, 2021.
  14. "Valour FC sign Canadian defender Rocco Romeo". Valour FC. February 4, 2022. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  15. "Vancouver FC signs Canadian defender Rocco Romeo". Canadian Premier League. January 16, 2023.
  16. Jacques, John (January 16, 2023). "Rocco Romeo Joins Vancouver FC Backline". Northern Tribune. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
  17. "Canada announces squad for CONCACAF Men's Under-17 Championship. During the tournament, he was shown a red card for slapping a player during the game against Costa Rica". Canadian Soccer Association. April 11, 2017. Retrieved September 25, 2017.
  18. "Canada announces squad for the Concacaf Men's Under-20 Championship". Canadian Soccer Association. October 24, 2018. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
  19. "Canada Soccer announces Provisional List for Concacaf Men's Olympic Qualifying". Canadian Soccer Association. February 26, 2020. Retrieved February 26, 2020.
  20. Butler, Dylan (March 13, 2020). "Concacaf suspends men's Olympic qualifying and Concacaf Champions League". Major League Soccer.
  21. Rocco Romeo at Soccerway
  22. "L1O Stats 2016". League1 Ontario.
  23. "L1O Stats 2017". League1 Ontario.
  24. "L1O Stats 2018". League1 Ontario.
  25. "League1 Ontario Announces 2016 Men's First And Second Team All-Stars". League1 Ontario. November 17, 2016.
  26. "League1 Ontario Announces 2017 Men's First, Second and Third Team All-Stars". League1 Ontario. November 10, 2017.
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