Romário

Romário

Personal information
Full name	Romário de Souza Faria
Height	1.67 m (5 ft 5+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Centre Forward
Team information
Current team	Vasco da Gama
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 2005

Romário de Souza Faria (born January 29, 1966), better known simply as Romário, is a legendary Brazilian football center forward who helped the Brazil national team win the 1994 FIFA World Cup and has been one of the most prolific strikers in the world since the 1990s, having had successful tenures with European clubs PSV Eindhoven and FC Barcelona, and in Brazil with CR Vasco da Gama. His professional career has extended past age 40, an age by which most professional footballers have retired.

On May 20 2007, Romário scored the 1000th goal of his playing career including youth, friendly and testimonial games, [3] playing for Vasco da Gama with a penalty against Sport Recife. He is the second player in professional football history to score 1000 goals, the other being Pelé who reached the milestone in 1969.

He is the third highest goalscorer in the history of the Brazilian team, as well as the second highest scorer of all time in the Brazilian League, in which he has finished as the top scorer six times. He was selected the FIFA World Player of the Year in 1994 and is catalogued as one of the greatest stars in the history of the game by FIFA.

Romário was named as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers as part of FIFA's 100th anniversary celebration in March 2004.

Club career

Overview

In 1993, during Romário's successful season at Barcelona, he was called to the national team for the [ Born in Rio de Janeiro, of very humble beginnings, Romário started his career playing for Vasco da Gama (becoming one of the best footballers of the club in the last two decades) where he won two State Championships (1987/88). After being scouted by Piet de Visser, he played for PSV Eindhoven between 1988 and 1992, winning the Dutch League in 1989, 1991 and 1992. He moved to Spain's FC Barcelona for the 1993-1994 season, in which, along with players like Hristo Stoichkov, Jose Mari Bakero, Josep Guardiola, Michael Laudrup and Ronald Koeman, he helped the club win the League, while becoming the season's top goalscorer with 30 goals in 33 matches.

Romário was named FIFA World Player of the Year in 1994, after being the runner-up in 1993. In 1995 he returned to Brazil to play for Flamengo. He spent the next year in Valencia. In 1998, he missed out the World Cup and then returned to Flamengo until 1999.

He played for Vasco da Gama again in 2000, winning the Mercosur Cup, the Brazilian League, the South American and Brazilian Footballer of the Year award. From 2002 until 2004 he played for Fluminense. On October 21, 2004 he was fired from the club after a conflict with the coach. He then went back to play for the team he started at, Vasco da Gama. In 2005, at nearly 40 years of age, Romário scored 22 goals in the Brazilian Championship, making him the league's top goalscorer.

In the beginning of 2006, he joined Miami FC along with former 1994 FIFA World Cup teammate Zinho. He helped Miami FC reach their first ever USL First Division Playoffs, scoring 18 league goals in 23 appearances for the team. In the biggest coup of the A-League's short history, Romario was signed by AUFC Board member Mel Patzwald to the Australian A-League club Adelaide United FC. He played his first match for Adelaide United FC on November 25, 2006 against the Central Coast Mariners. His short stint in Adelaide United FC had been criticized by a few United fans who felt that his selection was purely a commercial exercise to the detriment of the team. However, Romario found form in his final game with the club on December 15th 2006 when he scored a decisive goal to finish on a high and win over all fans of the game. It was an outpouring of emotion by a crowd who longed for him to extend his stay in Adelaide. According to club officials he is held in the highest regard and there is hope that he will continue his ties with the club. In January 2007 he signed a new deal with Vasco da Gama and eventually scored his 1000th goal on May 20, 2007 against Sport Recife.

1000 goals

Somewhere in 2006, Romario did his own research of how many goals he has scored in his career (youth, non-league and friendly games included) and came close to 1000 goals. Over the last months, the media has been building up a never seen before hype as to when the magic number of 1000 goals would be reached. This happened on May 20 2007 when Romario played with his team Vasca da Gama in the Brazilian league match against Sport Recife. The home town was awarded a penalty in the 48th minute. Romario controlled his nerves and semi lobbed the ball in the right side of the goal, making it 3-0 but more important: his 1000th goal. The media stormed the field and only after 15min of celebrations and interviews, the game continued (see external link for video of goal).

With this achievement, Romario joins fellow Brazilians Pelé en Arthur Friedenreich and Austrian player Franz Binder. They are the only four players in recorded history to have reached the 1000 goal mark.

Despite the hype, there is controversy surrounding the achievement as Romario's tally is not recognised by football's international governing body, Fifa, which says it only counts goals scored in official tournaments. [4]

National team

As a member of the Brazilian national team, Romário won the silver Olympic medal in Seoul in 1988, scoring seven goals. He was part of the Brazilian squad in the World Cups of 1990 and 1994. He scored 55 goals in 70 international matches, being the third highest goalscorer in the history of the Brazilian team behind Pelé and Ronaldo. He was a reserve in the 1990 World Cup, playing only 66 minutes in one match, against Scotland. Brazil was eliminated in second round by Argentina.

1994 World Cup

In 1993, during Romário's successful season at Barcelona, he was called to the national team for the Copa America. During one of Brazil's matches, coach Carlos Alberto Parreira left Romário as a reserve, after which he expressed his dissatisfaction, saying he would not have come over from Spain if he had known he was not going to play. These declarations caused Parreira to ban Romário from the Brazilian team.

Brazil played the first seven matches of the 1994 World Cup qualification without Romário, and suffered their first loss ever in World Cup qualifying against Bolivia. Journalists and fans clamored for his presence. Brazil had to beat Uruguay at the Maracana Stadium to finish first of their group. Before the match against Uruguay, Parreira gave up and called Romário. Brazil won 2-0, with Romário scoring both goals, and qualified to the World Cup.

At the World Cup finals, he partnered with Bebeto in the attack to lead his country to a record fourth World Cup title. He scored five goals in the tournament: one in each of the three first round matches, one against the Netherlands in quarterfinals, and the game-winning header against Sweden in the semifinals. He also assisted Bebeto in the only goal of the match against the United States in the round of 16. He was voted the most outstanding player of the tournament.

The Ro-Ro attack

In the subsequent years, Romário formed, along with fellow Brazilian forward Ronaldo, a feared attacking combo, which was colloquially referred to as the Ro-Ro duo. They each scored a hat-trick in a 6-0 win against Australia in the 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup.

1998 and 2002 World Cup absence

In a controversial decision, Romário, much to the dismay of Brazil fans and his own, was left out of the 1998 World Cup squad. Medical exams had revealed that he had a muscular injury, and he received intensive treatment leading up to the tournament, but he did not recover completely and was dismissed the day of the deadline for the World Cup squad submissions. Brazil lost the World Cup final against hosts France.

Prior to the 2002 World Cup, Romário, aged 36, was in considerably good form for while playing for Fluminense, but once again he was controversially left out of the national squad by coach Luiz Felipe Scolari due to indiscipline, despite general public demand for his inclusion. Brazil went on to win the tournament, beating Germany in the final.

On April 28 2005, Romário played his last game with the Brazilian national team. He scored the second goal in Brazil's 3-0 win against Guatemala.

Honours

Olympic medal record
Representing Brazil
Men's Football
	1988 Seoul	Team Competition

• Rio de Janeiro State Championship (1985-1999) - four times champion, seven times leading scorer
• KNVB Cup (1989, 1990) - two times champion
• Dutch League (1989, 1991, 1992) - three times champion and three times leading scorer
• Seoul Olympic Games (1988) - silver medal
• Copa America (1989-1997) - two times champion and leading scorer
• Spanish League (1994) - champion and leading scorer
• FIFA World Cup 1994 - champion and Most Valuable Player (Golden Ball) Award Winner
• Confederations Cup (1997) - champion and leading scorer
• Mercosur Cup (2000) - champion
• Brazilian Championship (2000) - champion
• FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup (2005) - 3rd place

Trivia

• He participated for Brazil at the 2005 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.
• On Sept 3, 2006 Romário won in another sport he practices: footvolley. Romário has played footvolley for over 15 years and won the VIP Footvolley.net Open in Miami Beach, USA.
• Dutch broadsheet newspaper "de Volkskrant" claims Romario scored his 1,000th goal on the 25th of March of 2007. The paper claims Romario forgot to include a goal scored during his stay at PSV in his official tally. The archivist of PSV however claims this goal was scored by Twan Scheepers.

Personal titles

• South american championship (U 20): 1985
• Rio state league's top scorer: 1986, 1987, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
• Olympic Games's top scorer: 1988
• Dutch league's top scorer: 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992
• Dutch Cup's top scorer: 1989, 1990
• Brazilian champions league's top scorer: 1990
• European Champions League's top scorer: 1990, 1993
• Spanish league's top scorer: 1994
• The best South american top player of the spanish league (EFE trophy): 1994
• World Cup's top player: 1994
• Onze d'Or (top player of the year for the Onze Mondial french newspaper): 1994
• FIFA Top player: 1994
• Confederations Cup's top scorer: 1997
• Rio-São Paulo tournament's top scorer: 1997, 2000
• Brazilian Cup's top scorer: 1998, 1999
• Copa Mercosul's top scorer: 1999, 2000
• João Havelange's top scorer: 2000
• Top player of the Intercontinental Cup's final: 2000
• Brazilian Bola de Prata (Placar): 2000
• El Pais newspaper (top player): 2000
• Brazilian league's top scorer: 2001, 2005

Statistics

Team	Goals	Matches	Goal average
Vasco da Gama	324	408	0.79
PSV Eindhoven	165	163	1.01
FC Barcelona	53	84	0.63
Flamengo	204	240	0.85
Valencia CF	14	21	0.67
Fluminense	48	77	0.62
Al Sadd SC	0	3	0
Miami FC	22	29	0.76
Adelaide United	1	4	0.25
Brazil National Team	56	74	0.76
Brazil Olympic Team	15	11	1.36
Youth years	77	127	0.61
Others	21	13	1.61
Total	1000	1254	0.79

External links

• Player profile on sambafoot.com
• Romário - Video compilation of Romário's career thus far.
• YouTube Romario 1000 - Romario scores his 1000th goal on penalty