Portillo Posted June 5, 2015 Posted June 5, 2015 (edited) Ten anecdotes about Romario Love him or hate him, but never doubt Romario’s talent, which is only surpassed by his excessive self-confidence – the combination of which has resulted in a great many anecdotes. Here are ten of the best. 1 – “I’ll pass it next time†Romario’s fellow striker at PSV was Dutch international Wim Kieft. He told this story: “Romario had no self-doubts whatsoever. Before every kick-off, he’d say to me: ‘give me the ball, I’ll dribble past 5 defenders and I’ll let you score.’ He tried it all the time. It never worked.†The dribbling part of the plan wasn’t always the problem. “He never passed it in front of goal. Meanwhile I dÃd pass him the ball quite a bit, allowing him to score more goals. He’d respond by saying: thank you, next time you’ll get one from me. But when ‘next time’ arrived he’d always just shoot.†2 – Revenge for 1998 The biggest disappointment in Romario’s career was missing out on the 1998 World Cup. The official story was that he was injured, but coach Zagallo later confessed the coaching staff had feared Romario’s selfish attitude would ruin the team atmosphere. Romario was initially reduced to tears, but his sorrow quickly made way for anger. He blamed Zagallo and his assistent Zico (“a natural born loserâ€) and ‘retaliated’ by having the restroom doors of a nightclub he owned in Rio painted over with hardly flattering depictions of the two men he held responsible. 3 – Faking injuries As coach of PSV, Sir Bobby Robson experienced Romario’s typical training style. From his autobiography: “In a large pool of good players, we had one tropical fish. Romario, the little jinking Brazilian striker, was as brilliant as he was unmanageable. He was a fantastic player, a match-winner, but his indiscipline was a constant cause for concern. He would train only when he chose to. When it came to one of our brisk five kilometer runs, for example, he would lose all interest in the job. One day, we were playing eight versus eight. One team seemed to be struggling. There was an inbalance somewhere on the pitch. So I counted the bodies – one two three four five six seven. Someone was missing. Just then I turned to see Romario disappearing into the dressing room. From sixty yards away, I shouted, ‘Hey! Romario! What are you doing?’ He pointed to his lower back, made a dismissive gesture and carried on walking in.†4 – His own training method Romario’s antics at PSV were nothing compared to how he behaved during his short stint at Valencia. There, he often refused to train with the rest of his teammates, arguing that his own method was better. Running for half an hour was pointless, he said. Better was to do sprints on the beach or on the exercise bike. His coach Jorge Valdano, realizing Romario’s value, let him do it. “But when we watched him he was usually doing nothing. Or he would mount the bike, pedal at high-speed for six seconds, and then relax for five minutes. And again. And again. That’s how he trainedâ€, Valdano told. 5 – “I will nutmeg the next player†One day at Valencia, Romario arrived late for a training session, his face still greasy and unwashed. He probably hadn’t slept at all, and had arrived straight from a night club. He joined the session, ignoring Valdano’s angry hackling, which went on for 30 seconds. Finally Romario responded by flat-out declaring “I will nutmeg the next player.†And he did. He played the ball right through the defender’s legs. “I could only laughâ€, Valdano said. He knew the argument had been settled right there. 6 – Leaving the pitch mid-game As the above story shows: never doubt Romario’s promises. Upon his arrival at Barcelona, he said he’d score 30 goals. and he did. And already at age 22, he promised he would end up scoring 1000 goals in his career. And he did, even if he had to keep playing into his 40’s, for clubs across five different continents. But the best story about keeping his promises takes us back to his first season at Barcelona. Cruyff himself tells the story: “One time, Romario asked me if he could miss two days of training to return to Brazil for the carnival in Rio de Janeiro. I replied, ‘if you make two goals tomorrow, I’ll give you two extra days rest compared to the other players.’ The next day, Romario scored his second goal 20 minutes into the game and immediately gestured to me asking to leave. He told me, ‘Coach, my plane leaves in an hour’. I had no choice but to let Romario leave for fulfulling his promise.†7 – First training session with Cruyff Romario was fond of Cruyff anyway. “By far the best coach I’ve ever hadâ€. During his first training session at Barcelona, Romario was eager to impress his new coach. Finally a coach with a decent career himself. So for the first time in his career, Romario considered it worthwhile to track back and help in defense. So when his side lost the ball, he sighed and started running back to his own half. “Romario, no!†he suddenly heared. Cruyff was shouting in his direction. “Romario, stay. Don’t run back. You will need all your energy for your attacking actions.†From that moment on, Cruyff became, and would remain, Romario’s favourite coach. 8 – Born for small spaces Romario was born a tiny baby. Weighing only 1.8 KG, his mother Lita later stated he fitted perfectly inside a shoe box. A suitable start for the man who would one day become the king of the penalty box. For Romario, a square meter was an acre. His talent for small spaces is also supported by his achievement of once having sex in an airplane bathroom, during one of his first trips with Brazil to Europe. The master of small spaces, indeed. 9 – 1000 Women Romario had a reputation for ‘finishing’ in a broader sense of the word . According to his teammate Stoichkov, Romario’s only friend during his stay at Barcelona, Romario cared about two things only. Scoring goals and having sex. Romario himself admitted: “I’m a womanizer. On the height of my promuscuity, I once slept with three different women in one dayâ€. Indeed, before scoring 1000 goals, Romario, so he claimed, had bedded 1000 women. 10 – The Prince and the Court Jester Romario’s best friend in football was also his biggest enemy: Edmundo, The Animal. A striker with an ego as big as Romario’s. His history includes receiving seven red cards in a year, racially insulting a lineman, pushing his hand in a referee’s face and feeding beer to a chimpanzee during a children’s party. Edmundo and Romario fell out when Romario had the doors of his club painted with charicatures of Edmundo and his ex-girlfriend. The two formed a lethal striking duo at Vasco. One night, a problem arose when Vasco was awarded a penalty. As you might expect, both players claimed the right to take it. Romario emerged as the winner. He shot — and missed. Edmundo responded: “The King decided his Prince should take it,†referring to club president Eurico Miranda and Romario. After scoring in Vasco’s next match, Romario sniped back: “Now, everyone in the kingdom is happy — the King, the Prince….and the court jester.†Edited June 5, 2015 by Portillo
Portillo Posted June 5, 2015 Author Posted June 5, 2015 PSV on the other hand, emboldened by their European Cup win in 1988 and the ambition of their primary sponsor and backers Philips, took a chance on a highly-promising striker who had just impressed at the Olympics. Romário was 22 when he arrived in Holland from Vasco de Gama, having won two state championships there and finished top scorer in Seoul. And he wasn’t, shall we say, short of confidence. “He’s the most interesting player I’ve worked with so far,†said Guus Hiddink, PSV coach in Romário’s first three years with the club, in 2011. “If he saw that I was a bit more nervous than usual ahead of a big game, he’d come to me and say: ‘Take it easy, coach, I’m going to score and we’re going to win’. What’s incredible is that eight out of the 10 times he told me that, he really did score and we really did win.†Win and score plenty, too. Romário got 26 in 34 games in that first season, but after that he really got going, notching 61 in 55 over the next two campaigns, before a broken leg limited him to half a season the following year (still managing nine in 17), before jumping back aboard the horse with 31 in his final year in Holland. That’s 127 goals in 142 games over five seasons. Not bad. The fascination with El Baixinho (‘Shorty’) extended to Hiddink’s successor. Bobby Robson arrived at PSV after leaving the meat-grinder of the England job, and while the little Brazilian was his primary source of frustration as well as the primary source of goals, Robson was clearly enthralled. He dedicated a long passage of his autobiography to discussing life with Romário, calling him a “tropical fish†but also telling of assorted transgressions, major and minor. “There was no controlling his private life,†Robson wrote. “To Romário, Friday night was party night, even if we had a game the next day. Alcohol was not the problem – he was a Coca-Cola guy – but he’d stay out until four in the morning and sleep all day before a 7.30pm kick-off. We would take calls from people saying ‘Romário’s been out all night. He left here at four’. He would dance, chat, meet a local lady, carouse with her and then sleep all day to be ‘fresh’ for the game.†One story told by a Dutch journalist recalls, on an away trip, Romário knocking on his door in the middle of the night, a woman on each arm. The journalist briefly considered what the night ahead might hold for him, only to be ushered from the room, the striker clearly having a far more urgent use of the facilities in mind. Romário would excuse himself from training with various injury problems, and his work ethic was not, shall we say, one of his strengths. “There were days when he was pathetically lazy,†Robson told the Observer in 1994, “… but you had to pick him because, if you left him out, you might miss a hat-trick! … Hoddle, Robson, Lineker, Beardsley, Barnes, Waddle and others were all special in their ways but Romário, to be frank, is just on another plane … he’s a quite extraordinary finisher. He could get the ball past a goalkeeper from angles which would make you say ‘How did he do that?’†Arguably Romário’s defining moment at PSV was a European Cup second leg in 1989, against defending champions Steaua Bucharest, who had won the first game 1-0 and after 17 minutes of the return in Holland, doubled their lead. However, Romário made a mockery of any pessimism about PSV’s chances by helping himself to a hat-trick, the third of which was a jinking masterpiece, described by Rob Smyth on these pages as being “without a hint of imperfectionâ€. “It was a goal from a comic book,†said Hiddink, while the goalkeeper Hans van Breukelen, watching slightly redundantly from the other end, said: “Romário was a genius but that was something that even geniuses couldn’t manage.†Of course that genius would eventually attract the attention of more glamorous clubs, and Barcelona paid a then-hefty price of £2m for Romário in 1993.
Tranquilo Posted June 6, 2015 Posted June 6, 2015 Ten anecdotes about Romario Love him or hate him, but never doubt Romario’s talent, which is only surpassed by his excessive self-confidence – the combination of which has resulted in a great many anecdotes. Here are ten of the best. 1 – “I’ll pass it next time†Romario’s fellow striker at PSV was Dutch international Wim Kieft. He told this story: “Romario had no self-doubts whatsoever. Before every kick-off, he’d say to me: ‘give me the ball, I’ll dribble past 5 defenders and I’ll let you score.’ He tried it all the time. It never worked.†The dribbling part of the plan wasn’t always the problem. “He never passed it in front of goal. Meanwhile I dÃd pass him the ball quite a bit, allowing him to score more goals. He’d respond by saying: thank you, next time you’ll get one from me. But when ‘next time’ arrived he’d always just shoot.†2 – Revenge for 1998 The biggest disappointment in Romario’s career was missing out on the 1998 World Cup. The official story was that he was injured, but coach Zagallo later confessed the coaching staff had feared Romario’s selfish attitude would ruin the team atmosphere. Romario was initially reduced to tears, but his sorrow quickly made way for anger. He blamed Zagallo and his assistent Zico (“a natural born loserâ€) and ‘retaliated’ by having the restroom doors of a nightclub he owned in Rio painted over with hardly flattering depictions of the two men he held responsible. 3 – Faking injuries As coach of PSV, Sir Bobby Robson experienced Romario’s typical training style. From his autobiography: “In a large pool of good players, we had one tropical fish. Romario, the little jinking Brazilian striker, was as brilliant as he was unmanageable. He was a fantastic player, a match-winner, but his indiscipline was a constant cause for concern. He would train only when he chose to. When it came to one of our brisk five kilometer runs, for example, he would lose all interest in the job. One day, we were playing eight versus eight. One team seemed to be struggling. There was an inbalance somewhere on the pitch. So I counted the bodies – one two three four five six seven. Someone was missing. Just then I turned to see Romario disappearing into the dressing room. From sixty yards away, I shouted, ‘Hey! Romario! What are you doing?’ He pointed to his lower back, made a dismissive gesture and carried on walking in.†4 – His own training method Romario’s antics at PSV were nothing compared to how he behaved during his short stint at Valencia. There, he often refused to train with the rest of his teammates, arguing that his own method was better. Running for half an hour was pointless, he said. Better was to do sprints on the beach or on the exercise bike. His coach Jorge Valdano, realizing Romario’s value, let him do it. “But when we watched him he was usually doing nothing. Or he would mount the bike, pedal at high-speed for six seconds, and then relax for five minutes. And again. And again. That’s how he trainedâ€, Valdano told. 5 – “I will nutmeg the next player†One day at Valencia, Romario arrived late for a training session, his face still greasy and unwashed. He probably hadn’t slept at all, and had arrived straight from a night club. He joined the session, ignoring Valdano’s angry hackling, which went on for 30 seconds. Finally Romario responded by flat-out declaring “I will nutmeg the next player.†And he did. He played the ball right through the defender’s legs. “I could only laughâ€, Valdano said. He knew the argument had been settled right there. 6 – Leaving the pitch mid-game As the above story shows: never doubt Romario’s promises. Upon his arrival at Barcelona, he said he’d score 30 goals. and he did. And already at age 22, he promised he would end up scoring 1000 goals in his career. And he did, even if he had to keep playing into his 40’s, for clubs across five different continents. But the best story about keeping his promises takes us back to his first season at Barcelona. Cruyff himself tells the story: “One time, Romario asked me if he could miss two days of training to return to Brazil for the carnival in Rio de Janeiro. I replied, ‘if you make two goals tomorrow, I’ll give you two extra days rest compared to the other players.’ The next day, Romario scored his second goal 20 minutes into the game and immediately gestured to me asking to leave. He told me, ‘Coach, my plane leaves in an hour’. I had no choice but to let Romario leave for fulfulling his promise.†7 – First training session with Cruyff Romario was fond of Cruyff anyway. “By far the best coach I’ve ever hadâ€. During his first training session at Barcelona, Romario was eager to impress his new coach. Finally a coach with a decent career himself. So for the first time in his career, Romario considered it worthwhile to track back and help in defense. So when his side lost the ball, he sighed and started running back to his own half. “Romario, no!†he suddenly heared. Cruyff was shouting in his direction. “Romario, stay. Don’t run back. You will need all your energy for your attacking actions.†From that moment on, Cruyff became, and would remain, Romario’s favourite coach. 8 – Born for small spaces Romario was born a tiny baby. Weighing only 1.8 KG, his mother Lita later stated he fitted perfectly inside a shoe box. A suitable start for the man who would one day become the king of the penalty box. For Romario, a square meter was an acre. His talent for small spaces is also supported by his achievement of once having sex in an airplane bathroom, during one of his first trips with Brazil to Europe. The master of small spaces, indeed. 9 – 1000 Women Romario had a reputation for ‘finishing’ in a broader sense of the word . According to his teammate Stoichkov, Romario’s only friend during his stay at Barcelona, Romario cared about two things only. Scoring goals and having sex. Romario himself admitted: “I’m a womanizer. On the height of my promuscuity, I once slept with three different women in one dayâ€. Indeed, before scoring 1000 goals, Romario, so he claimed, had bedded 1000 women. 10 – The Prince and the Court Jester Romario’s best friend in football was also his biggest enemy: Edmundo, The Animal. A striker with an ego as big as Romario’s. His history includes receiving seven red cards in a year, racially insulting a lineman, pushing his hand in a referee’s face and feeding beer to a chimpanzee during a children’s party. Edmundo and Romario fell out when Romario had the doors of his club painted with charicatures of Edmundo and his ex-girlfriend. The two formed a lethal striking duo at Vasco. One night, a problem arose when Vasco was awarded a penalty. As you might expect, both players claimed the right to take it. Romario emerged as the winner. He shot — and missed. Edmundo responded: “The King decided his Prince should take it,†referring to club president Eurico Miranda and Romario. After scoring in Vasco’s next match, Romario sniped back: “Now, everyone in the kingdom is happy — the King, the Prince….and the court jester.†PSV on the other hand, emboldened by their European Cup win in 1988 and the ambition of their primary sponsor and backers Philips, took a chance on a highly-promising striker who had just impressed at the Olympics. Romário was 22 when he arrived in Holland from Vasco de Gama, having won two state championships there and finished top scorer in Seoul. And he wasn’t, shall we say, short of confidence. “He’s the most interesting player I’ve worked with so far,†said Guus Hiddink, PSV coach in Romário’s first three years with the club, in 2011. “If he saw that I was a bit more nervous than usual ahead of a big game, he’d come to me and say: ‘Take it easy, coach, I’m going to score and we’re going to win’. What’s incredible is that eight out of the 10 times he told me that, he really did score and we really did win.†Win and score plenty, too. Romário got 26 in 34 games in that first season, but after that he really got going, notching 61 in 55 over the next two campaigns, before a broken leg limited him to half a season the following year (still managing nine in 17), before jumping back aboard the horse with 31 in his final year in Holland. That’s 127 goals in 142 games over five seasons. Not bad. The fascination with El Baixinho (‘Shorty’) extended to Hiddink’s successor. Bobby Robson arrived at PSV after leaving the meat-grinder of the England job, and while the little Brazilian was his primary source of frustration as well as the primary source of goals, Robson was clearly enthralled. He dedicated a long passage of his autobiography to discussing life with Romário, calling him a “tropical fish†but also telling of assorted transgressions, major and minor. “There was no controlling his private life,†Robson wrote. “To Romário, Friday night was party night, even if we had a game the next day. Alcohol was not the problem – he was a Coca-Cola guy – but he’d stay out until four in the morning and sleep all day before a 7.30pm kick-off. We would take calls from people saying ‘Romário’s been out all night. He left here at four’. He would dance, chat, meet a local lady, carouse with her and then sleep all day to be ‘fresh’ for the game.†One story told by a Dutch journalist recalls, on an away trip, Romário knocking on his door in the middle of the night, a woman on each arm. The journalist briefly considered what the night ahead might hold for him, only to be ushered from the room, the striker clearly having a far more urgent use of the facilities in mind. Romário would excuse himself from training with various injury problems, and his work ethic was not, shall we say, one of his strengths. “There were days when he was pathetically lazy,†Robson told the Observer in 1994, “… but you had to pick him because, if you left him out, you might miss a hat-trick! … Hoddle, Robson, Lineker, Beardsley, Barnes, Waddle and others were all special in their ways but Romário, to be frank, is just on another plane … he’s a quite extraordinary finisher. He could get the ball past a goalkeeper from angles which would make you say ‘How did he do that?’†Arguably Romário’s defining moment at PSV was a European Cup second leg in 1989, against defending champions Steaua Bucharest, who had won the first game 1-0 and after 17 minutes of the return in Holland, doubled their lead. However, Romário made a mockery of any pessimism about PSV’s chances by helping himself to a hat-trick, the third of which was a jinking masterpiece, described by Rob Smyth on these pages as being “without a hint of imperfectionâ€. “It was a goal from a comic book,†said Hiddink, while the goalkeeper Hans van Breukelen, watching slightly redundantly from the other end, said: “Romário was a genius but that was something that even geniuses couldn’t manage.†Of course that genius would eventually attract the attention of more glamorous clubs, and Barcelona paid a then-hefty price of £2m for Romário in 1993. ok, too long /thread
Prydzopolis Posted June 7, 2015 Posted June 7, 2015 It's good, but it's not quite Ibrahimovic Ibra took the crown but clearly Romario owned the crown before him!
Tranquilo Posted June 7, 2015 Posted June 7, 2015 romario/rivaldo, these players bought flavour into the game. Romario reminded me of a bull the way he ran at players with his quick yet stocky build. Think he did a guest appearance for adel utd back in 2006 or 2007
theguest7 Posted June 7, 2015 Posted June 7, 2015 (edited) That was a very worthy and interesting read. Imagine having him as an employee of yours in your club, he would be so hard to manage! Frankly I don't have any memories of watching Romario play as I was growing up. The 'flavour' player for me was Ronaldo during his late Inter days and later when he moved to Real. Some flavour he could add though, he was probably one of the most adored players ever. Everyone's favourite during those times Edited June 7, 2015 by theguest7
Hughesy Posted June 7, 2015 Posted June 7, 2015 I don't know how Romario is still alive, it's amazing he hasn't choked on his bullshit. Half of his 1000 goals he scored in his backyard. I was at Bluetongue when he debuted for Adelaide against the Mariners back in 2006. He was rubbish, he did absolutely nothing. I don't even remember him breaking stride lol
Unlimited Posted June 7, 2015 Posted June 7, 2015 have you seen the girl he's going out with? on the right Damn.
Hughesy Posted June 7, 2015 Posted June 7, 2015 have you seen the girl he's going out with? on the right Damn. I hope you don't mean far right...
Portillo Posted June 8, 2015 Author Posted June 8, 2015 I was at Bluetongue when he debuted for Adelaide against the Mariners back in 2006. He was rubbish, he did absolutely nothing. I don't even remember him breaking stride lol He played his whole career like that. But still managed to finish seasons as top scorer and golden boot at World Cup 94. My favourite World Cup, for the record. ðŸ†
Portillo Posted June 8, 2015 Author Posted June 8, 2015 http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i_oFYo_hlFY One of his most memorable goals. Look at the way he slides the ball away from the defender.
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