Roméo Lavia

Anderlecht

Lavia is a youth product of the Belgian club Anderlecht. He arrived at eight years old at their training centre in Neerpede near Brussels. At a local international youth tournament for players under the age of 15, he got noticed for the first time by Pep Guardiola. The Spanish trainer was there on invitation of his Manchester City player Kevin De Bruyne who is co-organiser of this tournament that also bears his name, the KDB Cup.

Manchester City

At the age of sixteen, Lavia left Anderlecht for Manchester City in the summer of 2020, and signed his first professional contract. He joined the U18s where he quickly stood out. In November that year, after only eleven appearances, Lavia was promoted to the U23 squad. Together with the EDS team, the Belgian youngster won the Premier League 2 championship in April 2021 and was voted player of the season. From the summer of 2021, Lavia started training with the first-team. He earned a selection into squad of the Citizens to play the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League. Lavia made his professional debut at the age of seventeen on 21 September 2021, in the third round of the 2021–22 EFL Cup against Wycombe Wanderers, where he received a yellow card.

Southampton

On 6 July 2022, Lavia joined Southampton and signed a five-year contract. Although the fee was officially undisclosed, it was reported by BBC Sport to be worth an initial £10.5 million, plus £3.5 million in add-ons. It was also reported that the…

Lavia was born in Belgium to Congolese parents. In 2019, he played one official game for the Belgium U15 youth team, and also one for the Belgium U16 in which he scored once. On 17 March 2023, he received his first call-up to the Belgian senior national team by manager Domenico Tedesco for the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying match against Sweden and the friendly against Germany. On 28 March, Lavia made his debut for Belgium as a substitute in the 3–2 win against Germany.

Lavia is a defensive midfielder. According to Anderlecht's head of academy Jean Kindermans, Lavia's best position is a deep-lying playmaker, as "he can deliver passes and is always calm on the ball". Lavia stated that his inspirations are Barcelona player Sergio Busquets and his former Man City teammate Fernandinho. Lavia visibly expresses himself to be comfortable when recovering the ball, making use of the intense pressing using intelligence, tenacity, along with pace, and when he makes line-breaking deep passes. He is also adept at driving forward with the ball once he regains possession, which makes him extremely effective on the counterattack. Lavia's dribbling ability enables him to break lines of defensive pressure, and he is also lauded for his awareness and reading of the game. Lavia is among the most accurate midfielders in the Premier League, with an accuracy-adjusted pass completion rate of 84% in the 2022–23 season, which had him tied for fifth best in his position. Former Southampton teammate Oriol Romeu, referring to Lavia, said that "if you’re that young and playing that well, you’re going to be special".

Club

As of match played 6 September 2026

International

As of match played 28 March 2023