Romario: I am the best Brazilian footballer since Pele. Romario - the laziest football genius Where is Romario now?

18.04.2024

There is every reason to say that Romario was the best striker in world football in the 1990s. He began his brilliant career at the Brazilian club Vasco da Gama, but at a young age he acquired a very scandalous reputation when he was expelled from the Brazilian team at the World Youth Championship for violating the rules.

After performing brilliantly at the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988, Romario moved to PSV Eindhoven. There he had serious disagreements with coaches and teammates, which, however, did not stop him from scoring 98 goals in five seasons in the Dutch championship. In the summer of 1993, Barcelona bought Romario for £3 million.

At first, Brazilian coaches had difficulty adapting his strong individualism to team play. But performances in European clubs made his style more harmonious. In 1994, Romario scored five important goals, to which he added another in the penalty shoot-out in the final against Italy.

After the World Cup in the USA, he rushed between two continents, changing clubs, disappeared from the national team for a long time, but managed to return to it at the Tournois de France in 1997. Unfortunately, he was prevented from playing at the World Championships in France by an injury received shortly before the start of the tournament.

After this, Romario moved to his homeland of Brazil, where he played for a long time. In 2005, at the age of 39 (!), he again became the top scorer of the Brazilian championship. In 2006, he moved to the American club Miami from the first division.

In 2007, the 41-year-old forward moved to the club where he once started his career, Vasco da Gama, and has already scored five goals for his new team, thereby moving even closer to breaking the 1,000 career goal mark . On May 21, 2007, Romario scored his 1000th goal.

After the doping scandal, on April 15, 2008, the “shorty” officially announced the end of his sports career (although he was forgiven because the doping came through a remedy for baldness).

Achievements

Best of the day

Team

World Champion 1994

America's Cup winner: 1989, 1997

Confederations Cup winner: 1997

Olympic silver medalist: 1988

Winner of the Brazilian Championship: 2000

Champion of Spain: 1993, 1994

Dutch Champion: 1989, 1991, 1992

Dutch Cup winner: 1989, 1990

4-time Carioca League champion: 1987, 1988, 1996, 1999

Mercosur Cup Winner: 2000

Best Footballer of the 1994 World Cup

The best football player in the world 1994

South American Footballer of the Year: 2000

Best Brazilian Footballer 2000

7 times became the top scorer of the Carioca League

Included in the FIFA 100 list

Romario de Souza Faria(port. Romrio de Souza Faria; January 29, 1966, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) - Brazilian footballer, forward. In 1994, he received a world champion medal and was recognized as the best football player of the year in the world. In 2010, he was elected to the lower house of the National Congress from the Socialist Party of Brazil.

Biography

Romario began his career in the Brazilian club Vasco da Gama and at a young age acquired a very scandalous reputation when he was expelled from the Brazilian national team at the World Youth Championship for violating the rules.

Having performed brilliantly at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul (scoring in both the semi-finals and the final, in which the Brazilians lost to the USSR team in extra time), Romario moved to PSV. There he had serious disagreements with coaches and teammates, which, however, did not stop him from scoring 98 goals in five seasons in the Dutch championship. In the summer of 1993, Barcelona bought Romario for £3 million.

At first, Brazilian coaches had difficulty adapting his strong individualism to team play. But performances in European clubs made his style more harmonious. At the 1994 World Cup in the USA, Romario scored five important goals - against Cameroon, Russia and Sweden in the group stage, against the Netherlands in the quarter-finals and Sweden in the semi-finals. Another goal was scored in the penalty shootout in the final against Italy.

After the World Cup, he “darted” between two continents, changing clubs, disappeared from the national team for a long time, but managed to return to it at the Tournois de France in 1997. For the upcoming World Cup, the coaches were playing the “Ro-Ro” pairing: Romario - Ronaldo. He was prevented from playing at the World Championships in France by an injury received shortly before the start of the tournament. He almost managed to recover, but coach Mario Zagallo, after consulting with Zico, decided not to take him to the tournament. As a result, the 11th number, which Romario managed to receive in his application, was transferred to Emerson, who replaced him.

After this, Romario moved to his homeland of Brazil, where he played for a long time. In 2005, at 39 years old, he again became the top scorer in the Brazilian Championship. In 2006, he moved to the American club Miami from the first division.

In 2007, the 41-year-old forward moved to his starting club, Vasco da Gama, and scored five goals for the team, approaching the 1,000-goal mark in his career. On May 21, 2007, Romario scored his 1000th goal (this achievement also includes 77 goals scored for the youth teams of Olaria and Vasco da Gama).

After the doping scandal, on April 15, 2008, Romario officially announced the end of his sports career (although he was forgiven, since the doping came through a remedy for baldness).

In mid-2009, it was announced that Romario had signed a contract with Club America from Rio de Janeiro. Romario agreed to help the club return to the elite division of the Carioca League.

The 10,000-seat stadium in Duque de Caxias is named after Romario.

A statue of Romario appeared on the field of the San Januario stadium in Rio de Janeiro, where the footballer scored his thousandth goal.

Statistics

Club	Season	Championship	Cup	Continent.	Others	Total
Games	Goals	Games	Goals	Games	Goals	Games	Goals	Games	Goals
Vasco da Gama	1985	12	8
1986	22	21
1987	25	13
1988	38	28
Total	97	70
PSV	1988/89	24	19	3	4	5	3			33	26
1989/90	20	23	2	2	4	6			26	31
1990/91	25	25	2	5	2	0			29	30
1991/92	14	9	1	0	2	0			17	9
1992/93	26	22	1	3	9	7			36	32
Total	109	98	9	14	22	16			140	128
Barcelona	1993/94	33	30	19	0	10	2			79	59
1994/95	13	4	0	0	5	3			18	7
Total	46	34	2	0	15	5			97	66
Flamengo	1995	16	8	5	1
1996	3	0	5	1
Total	19	8
Valencia	1996/97	5	4	0	0					5	4
Total	5	4	0	0					5	4
Flamengo	1997	4	3	8	7
Total	4	3
Valencia	1997/98	6	1	1	1					7	2
Total	6	1	1	1					7	2
Flamengo	1998	20	14	4	6
1999	19	12	7	7
Total	39	22
Vasco da Gama	2000	20	14	2	1
2001	18	21
Total	38	35
Fluminense	2002	22	15	7	5
Total	22	15
Al Sadd	2002/03	3	0
Total	3	0
Fluminense	2003	21	13
2004	13	5	2	2
Total	34	18
Vasco da Gama	2005	31	23	2	1	-	-	10	7	43	31
2006	-	-	1	3	-	-	10	6	11	9
Total	31	23	3	4	-	-	20	13	54	40
Miami	2006	21	17
Total	21	17
Adelaide United	2006/07	4	1
Total	4	1
Vasco da Gama	2007	6	3	3	2	1	0	9	10	19	15
Total	6	3	3	2	1	0	9	10	19	15
America (Rio)	2009	1	0
Total							1	0	1	0
Total	434	311

The word "Rei" means King in Portuguese. When presenting a T-shirt with number 40 on the occasion of his fortieth birthday, the organizers of the celebration, with great allusion, misspelled the name “Shorty” (Romario’s nickname). Pay attention to the photo: it says REIMÁRIO.

The attitude towards this football player both in his homeland and abroad is very ambiguous. Some people idolize Romario, others hate him. Well, as they say, there are no comrades according to taste and color. But I think that the former are still the majority.

However, it’s hard to classify “Shorty” as simply talented football players. In reality, he is an extraordinary talent, with his pluses (which are probably fewer in human terms) and minuses (which are practically non-existent in game terms).

Having won the title of top scorer at the end of the 2005 Brazilian Championship (and this is on the verge of his fortieth birthday!), the indomitable Roma set off to conquer other continents where he had never set foot in a boot. Football fans in the USA and Australia consistently watched Romario's performances at the stadiums of their countries throughout 2006. And Brazil hoped and waited for this “indomitable” one to return. He will return to score the 1,000th goal of his career and gloriously end the thorny path of a player who has hundreds of matches played at different levels in the Brazilian national team and clubs...

The site administration has recently begun to receive proposals, sometimes bordering on demands, to open separate sections on Torsida dedicated to this or that Brazilian football player. And each appealed with “specific” arguments and provided facts that, say, a certain Kleberson Junior Parreira de Nocimento Caca do Figurense da Bombonero deserves “his own” section on our website.

Alas! I will repeat for the umpteenth time. It is impossible to embrace the immensity. And I, as the author of the project, do not intend to follow the lead of our dear visitors. Maybe to the detriment of his “brainchild”. However, please understand me too...

Instead of a preface: Sao Paulo 20.02.2007

Only the arguments of one of the fans of Brazilian football convinced me of the need to open a new section dedicated to the “Great” and “Terrible”. That's what we are doing today.

As an annotation for this section, I would like to give the floor to this fan, whose name is Vitaly Avdeev (the text is published in the original).

Hello, dear lover of Brazilian football!!!

It’s very nice to communicate, and even just write a letter to a like-minded person, not just a football fan, but a lover of Brazilian football! Oddly enough, but there are very few of us... There are very few people who appreciate the skill of football, the game of beauty, and leave the result for later... well, at least that’s how I am...

But on the other hand, there is not a single person who is passionate about football who would be indifferent to the Brazilians, they are either respected or hated, the excuse being that the Brazilians “always win everything anyway.”

Maybe it won’t look patriotic, but in all the matches I saw with the Russian national team, I was rooting for Brazil! I don’t understand so many of our football players, football experts, commentators who worry about other national teams without appreciating the Brazilians... Of course, this is everyone’s business, a matter of taste... But how can you exchange a magnificent luxurious lunch for a homeless kitchen!!!

I am a very passionate fan of the Brazilian national team, but not a headless fan! I have always tried to judge objectively, I have collected a collection of videos on four DVDs, I try to compare the football of the past, the times of Garrincha, Gerson... with the modern football of Adriano and Kaka.

Time moves forward, football develops... and develops, it seems, for the better... but oddly enough, my sympathies are increasingly growing towards the football of the 20th century, towards the football of the romantics. I am very sorry that the motto “You will score as much as you can, and we will score as much as we want” is no longer relevant. But why? In my opinion, because so many Brazilians dream of going to Europe, “to earn money,” and that’s where they “go bad”... But their desire is reasonable and meaningful, they want fame, money... But mastery gradually leaves, is wasted on advertising and social receptions. Of course, this is a controversial point of view, but in any case, he said what he thought... expressed what was boiling.

Well, so I gradually approached Romario... Romario, the favorite football player of all Brazilians! I somehow came up with the following prefix epithets for myself:

Pele the King
Garrincha is the most technical
Ronaldinho is the most beautiful
Rivelino is the most emotional
Cafu is the most reliable, no matter how strange it sounds
Romario is the best!!!

Romario is also the most unique... he trained very little, played truant, drank, etc., participated fully in one world championship, although many people believe that in 1986, 1990, 1998 he would have brought a lot of benefit, has very imperfect physical characteristics... and yet, many experts consider him a figure higher than Pele, higher by definition...

Yes, and if we think rationally, there should be only one Pele, the king of football, but if ever a person appears who is taller than Pele, then in the minds of the people Pele will be crowned king, since it is very difficult to compare the football of the 60-70s with modern ... So Romario was the one who could compete with Pele.

Now, regarding the section on your site, regarding Romario... Of course, whether there is a section or not is up to you and it depends on your opinion about Romario... For example, on my site, I would never make a separate section for Ronaldo , Adriano, Rivaldo... It’s very difficult to even come up with a name for the section, “The Last of the Greats”, “the last ROMANTIC”, these names somehow sound very sad... “The Best Brasileiro”... well, in any case, it’s a matter of taste!

As for the content, the content in the Football Legends section is quite suitable... and I would also add a video, if possible, and photos...

And in conclusion, regarding the site, I would like to separately note: the site is informative, grammatical, please support it... I have been online only since 2002, and there were a lot of sites dedicated to Brazilian football, but gradually they all stopped being moderated and left into oblivion. I would really like this not to happen to your site!!! Thank you for your love for Brazilian Football!

Vitaly Avdeev(aka Brasik1994)

Damn it (sorry for the emotions), how nice it is to hear and read words of gratitude addressed to our (and yours, dear visitors) site. But, unfortunately, there is no point in guessing what will happen tomorrow. We must approach reality objectively. Time will tell how it all ends.

And further. Indeed, it is very difficult to come up with a name for a new section. We gave him the following: - "Great" and "terrible." “Great” - because he is truly a Great (with a Capital G) football player. And “terrible” - for his, I’m not afraid of this word, disgusting character.

Instead of an afterword: Sao Paulo 20.02.2007

* An updated section about Romario will be opened soon

Country Brazil.

Height 169 cm

Role forward

Clubs He played for the Brazilian clubs Olaria (1984 - 1985),

"Vasco da Gama (1986 - 1987, 2000 - 2001),

"Flamengo" (1998 - 1999),

"Fluminense" (2002 - 2003),

Dutch PSV (1988 - 1993),

Spanish Barcelona (1993/94)

and Valencia (1996/97, 1997/98),

Qatari "Al-Shaad" (2003).

Currently playing again for Fluminense.

He scored 874 goals in official matches during his career.

Titles: World Champion (1994);

America's Cup winner (1989);

Dutch champion (1988/89, 1991/92, 1992/93);

Champion of Spain (1993/94);

Champion of Brazil (2000);

Romario. Unlucky Shorty

If you ask Brazilians living at home, in exile or, say, playing in the Russian championship, who is the best football player of our time, most of them will answer without hesitation: “Of course, Romario!” Despite the fact that the most popular forward will soon turn 38, that his capricious character is known to almost every Brazilian housewife and - the most paradoxical thing - that he was actually not involved in the victory of the national team at the World Championships in Korea and Japan.

However, the hero of the 2002 World Cup, Ronaldo, will pay tribute to the veteran and partner in the attack line in the qualifying round in the first words spoken to journalists after the golden final. “Everything was decided by the first goal against Caen,” admits the tournament’s top scorer. “From the outside, the scoring chance might have seemed a little clumsy, but in fact it was a classic toe kick (or “pim”, as the players would say) a la Romario."

A year ago, Romario did not go to Korea and Japan not because he played poorly or was unworthy of the national team. After all, at that time he was the most accurate sniper of the Brazilian Championship as part of Vasco da Gama, and he managed to score four goals in the qualifying tournament. The trouble is that Romario was never a good diplomat and always hit the truth in the face - be it an opponent on the field, a teammate or the coach of the national team. Luiz Felipe Scolari, who stepped onto the captain's bridge, did not immediately like this, and he skillfully got rid of the sharpness not only for scoring chances, but also for the striker's tongue. Although, without exaggeration, whole ranks of demonstrators stood up to defend Romario at that time.

But this was not the first injustice in the national team towards Shorty, as Romario is ironically called in Brazil for his short stature. As the editor-in-chief of the popular Brazilian football magazine Placar, Andre Fontanel, recently told me, Romario deserved a place in the national team at the age of twenty - at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. However, the then Brazilian coach Tele Santana, like Oleg Romantsev in Japan, relied on the old guard and chose not to notice the rising star. According to my interlocutor, this was tantamount to Feola not taking Pele to the 1958 World Cup.

Four years later - in 1990 - Romario was doomed to get to the world championship in Italy. Even though by that time Torsida had lost sight of him: he moved to Holland, where he began regularly scoring for PSV. Romario was forgiven for leaving for Europe and losing to the Russians in the final of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul a year later, when he and Bebeto won Brazil the America's Cup, scoring the decisive goal against the Uruguayans at the Maracanã. But then a new misfortune occurred: shortly before the start of the World Championship, Shorty seriously damaged the ligaments of his ankle joint and, without recovering, was forced to sit out the entire tournament on the bench. Although, according to many Brazilians, if he had been in Muller’s place in the decisive episode of the match with the Argentines, he probably would not have missed, even playing “on one leg.”

By the end of the next four-year cycle, in '94, Romario was already shining in Barcelona, where he became the champion and top scorer of the Spanish championship. Such feats cannot go unnoticed even overseas. However, Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira did not pay attention to the Spanish legionnaire until his team was on the edge of the abyss: in the last qualifying match, Brazil was only content with victory. And Romario, urgently called to help, provided it. As well as winning the world championship in the States - albeit in a post-match penalty shootout. It is unlikely that the 27-year-old forward imagined then that he was at the peak of his career in the national team.

After his triumph in the USA, Romario returned to his homeland, where within two years with Flamengo he won two Rio de Janeiro state championships and the Mercosur Cup. Soon, however, Shorty was again overtaken by a black streak, and at the most inopportune moment. Half a month before the start of the championship, Romario suffered an injury to the calf muscle of his right leg, which he eventually almost healed, but was still sent home on the last day of entries for the tournament. Television footage of the super forward crying at a press conference then went around the whole world.

And in 2002, as mentioned above, Romario “did not fit the game plan” of Scolari.

Anyone else in his place would have taken to drinking after such troubles or thrown his boots in the trash, but he knows for himself that he continues to play and score to the delight of himself and millions of fans. By the way, Romario, with 874 goals, is today the second highest scorer in Brazilian history after Pele, who surpassed the fantastic 1000-goal mark. “I don’t think I’ll ever break the King’s record, but the closer I get to it, the more proud I’ll be in retirement,” the scorer says soberly.

By the way, despite his advanced age for a playing forward, Shorty continues to hang out with coaches and football officials. At the end of February, for example, he quarreled with the president of his current club, Fluminense, David Fischel, and went into self-imposed three-month exile in Qatar with the Al-Shaad team. Not for free, of course, but only... for one and a half million dollars. Not a bad fee for an almost 40-year-old football player, right?!

A month ago, Romario returned to Flu. Yes, not alone - he took with him from Al-Shaad his friend and compatriot Serginho...

Last winter, I and the leaders of one of the Russian Premier League clubs had the opportunity to visit Brazil in order to make a valuable acquisition there. One evening at the hotel I was found by a familiar football agent who, as it turned out, had rushed from another city where Fluminense was playing an away match. In his hands he had a small package, which he held - almost according to Mayakovsky - “like a bomb, like a hedgehog, like a double-edged razor.” It turned out that this was a T-shirt that Romario had played in just a couple of hours earlier and that my friend wanted to give to one of the coaches in Moscow.

Why did you race more than a hundred kilometers if you could easily buy a T-shirt with the inscription “Romario” in Rio or Sao Paulo: they are sold on every corner? - I asked.

No, they're not like that. Feel it: Romario’s sweat hasn’t dried yet!

Only in the next moment did I realize the stupidity of my question.

Romario Dos Santos Alves wanted to become a double of his most beloved character, the Hulk, but instead he almost lost both arms, because his passion for muscle-enhancing drugs led the guy to the threat of amputation. Today you will find out why children are afraid of Romario and call him a monster.

Biography of Dos Santos Alves

Romario Dos Santos Alves was born in Brazil, in the city of Caldas Novas in 1990. Initially, the guy’s life was no different from the life of any average Brazilian. Unprepossessing studies at school led the man to work as a security guard and a life devoid of prospects.

In his youth, the figure of a young man can hardly be called masculine: long arms, a slightly hunched back, feminine shaped shoulders. Rather, he can be described as an ectomorph. Struggling with natural abilities, Romario signed up for a gym. There he leaned on exercises to increase body weight, and worked mainly with iron. The first results became noticeable after six months of training. But this was not enough for the amateur bodybuilder.

Romario Alves - passion for chemistry

After moving from Caldas Novas to Goiania, Romario, to his misfortune, went to the gym with the goal of pumping up even more in order to become like his beloved Hulk. This hike began crazy times that radically changed his life. Here are just some facts from his life of that period.

Arriving at the gym, Romario drew attention to the huge bodybuilders standing apart from everyone else. The guy was not at a loss, he came up and met the athletes. He asked his new friends how he could become like them. Bodybuilders recommended several stimulant drugs, one of which was.
The first injections of the drug for muscle growth had an effect. My biceps and back began to grow by leaps and bounds. The bodybuilder himself said: “When after the first injection you see the effect and try it a second time, it’s already an addiction from which there is no chance of getting free.”

Romario Hulk could no longer stop. With each new injection, his muscles became harder and harder. The synthol under the skin turned into stones that solidified in the muscles. Little by little, the Brazilian began to turn into the beloved cult hero Hulk. Note that not only Romario tried to become like a muscular hero, he was even more successful in the transformation.
Overgrown muscles became the cause of all the troubles of the Brazilian athlete. With sloping shoulders, the volume of his biceps reached 65 centimeters. The changed athlete followed his heart to work in a Catholic church, where one day a woman approached him and said: “My daughter refuses to come to church because she is afraid of you. You are like a monster to her." At that moment the man was very offended.

Romario's muscles had grown so much that the needles stopped piercing them. Fossils prevented the drug from being administered. This fact could not stop the Brazilian, he simply changed the needle. The guy chose a needle that is used to vaccinate bulls. Only in this way was he able to continue the “vaccination course.”
Man-Hulk brought himself to such a state that his arms hurt mercilessly, he could not do anything, all his muscles burned, and necrosis began in the tissues.

At the same time, the guy suffered from terrible depression, as a result of which he wanted to commit suicide. Considering that his common-law wife was six months pregnant at that time, this act only worsened the situation for their family.
The synthol victim lost his job after an unsuccessful suicide attempt and was hospitalized with a diagnosis of kidney failure. This disease was a consequence of taking synthol, the components of which do not adversely affect the kidneys.

The terrifying effects of synthol

His common-law wife, Marisangela Marinho, accompanied her husband to the hospital at dawn, washing herself with tears. Romario ended up in the hospital, and there the doctor told the Brazilian the terrifying news that he was facing amputation of both arms. The specialist explained that necrosis has begun in the tissues inflamed by the drug, which can be fatal. He said: “Romario, you’re not a pianist? Why do you need hands then? Sister, bring the saw." Fate had mercy on Romario; he had a CT scan, which showed that the guy could still save his limbs.

Romario's life after chemo

Miraculously, doctors saved the Brazilian’s hands by partially removing synthol from the tissue. Doctors strictly forbade the former Hulk from using any chemicals.

In 2013, the man “gave up” with synthol, but at first he could not completely give up steroids. After surgery, he switched to estigor, a steroid based on equine hormone. Having prepared the injection liquid, he tried to inject it into his chest. The guy saw that there was no blood coming out, and he himself was completely covered in cold sweat. At this moment, the man thought about what he had in the past, and what might await him in the future. He decided that he would no longer give in to temptation and would not take steroids. Now the Brazilian Hulk is engaged in “natural” bodybuilding, and on his Instagram he posts fresh pictures with noticeably reduced muscles.

The desire to acquire iron muscles sometimes clouds the male brain, pushing health, family and even life into the background. It was only by a miracle that Dos Santos Alves survived, going down in bodybuilding history as the failed Hulk.