Bosnia And Herzegovina
Burkina Faso
Czech Republic
EL Salvador
Indonesia
International Tournaments
Montenegro
North Macedonia
South Africa
United Arab Emirates

Romario hated training, scored goals to go to Carnival, and became popular politician

talksport.com, 18 November 2022, 09:00
Our definition of 'cult hero' isn't really the same as Brazil's when it comes to football stars.

Yeah, you might like David Beckham. But you're not going to vote him into the Houses of Parliament, are you?

Advertisement

Because the thing is, while football is an important part of British culture, it pales in significance to its importance in Brazil.

Where the mood of most countries swings upon economic fortune, Brazil's depends on the national team and there is great belief they can win in Qatar in 2022 for the first time in two decades.

Footballers are worshipped like gods and often hold more influence than the country's political leaders.

Advertisement

In fact, sometimes the two cross over, like in the case of legendary party animal Romario, who is also one of the game's greatest goal scorers.

The striker-turned-politician once said: "When I was born, the man in the sky pointed to me and said, 'That's the guy'."

At times, it felt like Romario had a divine gift in the box, so much that he didn't even need to try.

Advertisement

"The night was always my friend. When I go out, I am happy and when I am happy I score goals," he once summarised.

Like fellow Brazil icon Ronaldinho, football came so easy to Romario that he was able to juggle his party lifestyle alongside being the best.

While today's greats, like Cristiano Ronaldo, spend their lives in the gym to achieve greatness, Ronaldinho once turned up to training drunk and Romario thought practice wasted calories.

He much preferred partying, womanising, and playing volleyball on the beautiful beaches of Rio de Janeiro.

Advertisement

And his coaches let him, because he was so good. Carlos Alberto Parreira excused Romario from the final training camp before the 1994 World Cup because the forward wanted to play volleyball on the beach with his friends.

Romario went on to become the tournament's most valuable player, winning the Golden Ball as Brazil lifted the World Cup.

This was despite being at odds with his strike-partner Bebeto, who was everything Romario was not as a person.

Advertisement

Romario admitted to being arrogant, selfish and egotistic, while Bebeto was a humble family man. In 1994, Romario played for Barcelona, Bebeto turned out for Deportivo de La Coruna. While Romario and his Barca teammate Hristo Stoichkov would party from dusk til dawn, Bebeto did not.

Nonetheless, Romario still advised Parreira to pick Bebeto, in the same way he offered unsolicited advice to most of his managers.

Brazil legend Pele once urged Romario to let coaches be coaches, to which the striker responded by calling the icon 'mentally retarded'. Romario was never one to shy away from a controversial press conference and was criticised throughout his career for being too outspoken.

Advertisement

Before Barcelona and World Cup stardom, he made a name for himself at Vasco de Gama in Brazil before moving to PSV Eindhoven and starring under Guus Hiddink and Sir Bobby Robson in the early nineties.

"He's the most interesting player I've worked with so far," said Hiddink 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."

Advertisement

Meanwhile, Sir Bobby dedicated a large section of his autobiography to life with Romario at PSV.

"There was no controlling his private life," the former England and Newcastle boss wrote. "To Romario, 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."

Advertisement

Then at Barcelona, his manager Johan Cruyff revealed Romario once scored goals just so he could go to the carnival in Brazil.

"One time, Romario asked me if he could miss two days of training to return to Brazil for the carnival in Rio de Janeiro," Cruyff explained.

"I replied: 'If you score two goals tomorrow, I'll give you two extra days rest compared to the other players.'

Advertisement

"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 fulfilling his promise."

As a matter of fact, that match was against Real Madrid and Romario went one better than promised by netting a hat-trick in a 5-0 win in January 1994.

So you get the point, Romario absolutely loved to party and managed to become one of the greatest strikers in history at the same time.

Advertisement

Unofficially, he netted more than 1000 goals in his career and Diego Maradona is among those who say the Brazilian is the best player they ever faced.

But, crazy as it sounds, Romario was left short-changed from his football career.

Despite his almost-divine ability in the box, many question what he could've been if he had any sort of work ethic.

Advertisement

For example, he only starred at one World Cup when he should've shone at four.

Injury kept him quiet at Italia '90 and forced him to miss France '98 when he was at the peak of his powers, before indiscipline meant he was left out of the World Cup-winning squad in 2002.

That was because, in 2001, he told Luis Fillipe Scolari he was having an eye operation, but still featured in friendlies for club side Vasco da Gama in Mexico and went on holiday.

Advertisement

After both the 1998 and 2002 omissions, Romario delivered press conferences breaking down in tears over the fact he was missing out on the World Cup.

Unfortunately, it meant the world never really got to see 'Ro-Ro', Romario and Ronaldo, join forces on the world's biggest stage.

Never one to stay quiet, he launched a career as a politician upon his retirement in 2008, which continues to be relatively successful.

He rightly called out corruption at FIFA, and in 2014 he was elected to the Senate with the most votes received ever by a candidate representing the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Advertisement

Romario failed with his bid to become governor of Rio de Janeiro in 2018, but we don't think we've seen the last of him yet.

Listen to every single match of the 2022 Qatar World Cup live across the talkSPORT network, starting with Qatar vs Ecuador on Sunday at 4pm.

Show more

Top News

20 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Seeking to bounce back from their midweek Champions League exit, Manchester City welcome Premier League leaders Liverpool to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon. 20 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Having squandered the chance to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table into the double figures, Liverpool have some wrongs to right in Sunday's blockbuster battle with Manchester City at the Etihad. 20 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk All transfer business is done and dusted for this season, but that doesn't stop clubs from preparing ahead for next season. 20 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk array(0) {} 20 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk After their magical playoff run fell just short in 2024, the New York Red Bulls hope to begin the 2025 Major League Soccer season on the right foot as they head to TQL Stadium to face FC Cincinnati on Saturday. 20 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk The 2025 Major League Soccer (MLS) regular season officially gets underway on Saturday, with Inter Miami welcoming New York City FC to Chase Stadium. 20 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Chelsea are reportedly determined to sign Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guehi in the summer transfer window and beat Tottenham Hotspur to his signature. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Liverpool have reportedly identified Bayer Leverkusen star Jeremie Frimpong as a replacement for Trent Alexander-Arnold should he leave the club in the summer, but are said to be in competition with Manchester City for his signature. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Manchester City suffered their 13th defeat of the season across all competitions against Real Madrid on Wednesday evening, which is the most Pep Guardiola has ever been beaten in a single campaign in his managerial career. 19 February 2025 talksport.com Robbie Fowler has condemned Darwin Nunez for 'criminally' missing a glorious chance to win Liverpool's end-to-end clash at Aston Villa. 19 February 2025 talksport.com Kylian Mbappe had Manchester City on strings and got manager Pep Guardiola doing stuff he'd never experienced before. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Freiburg's push for Champions League qualification continues on Friday when they welcome Werder Bremen to Europa-Park Stadion in their 23rd Bundesliga game of the season. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk The 2024-25 season has brought major change to a previously tired Champions League format, giving a fresh look to UEFA's top tournament. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Two sides battling for survival in the Turkish Super Lig go head-to-head on Friday, as Bodrumspor welcome Hatayspor to the Bodrum Ilce Stadyumu in a crucial relegation clash. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk A direct showdown for fourth place in the Turkish Super Lig takes centre stage on Friday as Eyupspor host Besiktas at the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Stadium. 19 February 2025 talksport.com Kylian Mbappe created football history en route to dumping Manchester City out of the Champions League with a stunning hat-trick. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Liverpool wing wizard Mohamed Salah broke a club goalscoring record and emulated the legendary Lionel Messi in the Reds' 2-2 Premier League draw with Aston Villa at Villa Park. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Kylian Mbappe scored a hat trick as Real Madrid beat Manchester City 3-1 in the second leg of their Champions League knockout round playoff on Wednesday night to breeze into the next stage of the competition. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Liverpool were held to a 2-2 draw by Aston Villa away from home in the Premier League on Wednesday evening and have given Arsenal hope in the Premier League title race. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Braga will have the opportunity to kick-start round 23 of the Primeira Liga when they welcome Nacional to the Municipal Stadium on Friday evening. 19 February 2025 talksport.com Mohamed Salah has once again eclipsed Cristiano Ronaldo's best ever goal contribution tally in the Premier League. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Leeds United are reportedly interested in Southampton defender Kyle Walker-Peters ahead of the summer transfer window. 19 February 2025 talksport.com Follow all the action as Manchester City must come from behind to beat Real Madrid to remain in the Champions League. 19 February 2025 talksport.com Manchester City were knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night. 19 February 2025 talksport.com There is plenty going on in the Premier League this week, and talkSPORT has all the latest news covered. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Tottenham Hotspur have reportedly received a major boost in their pursuit of Southampton attacker Tyler Dibling. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Inter Milan have reportedly entered the race to sign Corinthians attacker Yuri Alberto. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Antonio Rudiger has been recalled to Real Madrid's starting lineup for tonight's Champions League playoff second leg against Manchester City at the Santiago Bernabeu. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Leicester City and Crystal Palace are reportedly interested in FC Midtjylland striker Franculino ahead of the summer transfer window. 19 February 2025 sportsmole.co.uk Bournemouth's Andoni Iraola is reportedly an option to replace Carlo Ancelotti, should the Italian leave his job as Real Madrid manager at the end of the 2024-25 campaign.