Romario Biography –
Introduction Where to start...how on Earth do you begin a
biography with the most interesting detail about the Brazilian striker?
Should I mention the fact that he scored 1,000 goals
throughout his 23 year career? Should I tell you about the fact that at
41 years of age, he's still playing at the highest professional level?
Or should I go on about how he took Brazil to a splendid World Cup win
in 1994?
I'm going to try and take it slowly, because this is a player
that doesn't deserve to be rushed.
Full
name
Romario
de Souza Faria
Date
of birth
January
29, 1966
Place
of birth
Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil
Height
5.6FT
- 1.67M
Playing
position
Striker
Dawn of Romario's Career Born in Rio de Janeiro, a hub for world
class
talented Brazilian soccer players, he went on to play at the local
youth club of Vasco Da Gama, one of the big names in the Brazilian
championship.
After 5 years spent at
the
different youth sections of Vasco, he was finally taken up to the first
team in 1985 and was immediately thrown in the fires of the Brazilian
championship. His 3 seasons with Vasco earned him experience but also
overseas fame and by the time he was 22, he received an offer from one
of the most powerful Dutch clubs, PSV Eindhoven.
PSV Eindhoven PSV was undoubtedly Romario's club
career
apogee. His 5 seasons spent at the club earned him over 150 goals in
roughly the same number of matches and as you can probably guess,
that's an impressive goal/appearance ratio for any championship,
especially for one as tough as the Dutch one. He managed to win
the Dutch league with PSV in 1989, 1991 and 1992, before
being bought by Spanish giants FC Barcelona.
Season
Club
Games
Goals
1985-1988
Vasco
da Gama
47
17
1988-1993
PSV
Eindhoven
109
98
1993-1995
FC
Barcelona
46
34
1995-1996
Flamengo
16
8
1996
Valencia
CF
5
4
1996-1997
Flamengo
7
3
1997
Valencia
CF
6
1
1998-1999
Flamengo
39
26
1999-2002
Vasco
da Gama
46
41
2002-2003
Fluminense
26
16
2003
Al
Sadd SC
3
0
2005-2006
Vasco
da Gama
32
24
2006
Miami
FC
25
19
2006
Adelaide
United
4
1
2007
Vasco
da Gama
15
3
FC Barcelona Romario didn't lose his appetite
for goal with
his move to Barcelona. In fact, his two seasons there were almost as
successful as the ones at PSV, scoring 34 league games for Barca in 46
games, becoming the league's top goalscorer. 1994 was definitely his
best year, winning the title with Barcelona, the World Cup with the
Brazil national team and being named World Player of the Year.
Unfortunately, after a successful 1994-1995 season with Barcelona, his
career entered a downfall.
Traveling the Brazil-Spain Route Moving back to Brazilian
side Flamengo in 1995
was not the best of moves for him. Although he did play well here, one
season later he found himself going back to Spain to play for Valencia
CF for half a season. Returning to Flamengo again, in the 1996-1997
season, only to find himself back at, you guessed, Valencia once more
for the second part of the season. And guess where he went back the
next year? Yep, Flamengo again.
This
overseas table-tennis
that he played between the Brazilian
soccer and the Spanish soccer made him lose his efficiency
and these 4 years would prove vital later on, as he would try to beat
Pele's record of 1,000 official goals.
Years
National
Team
Games
Goals
1987-2005
Brazil
71
56
The next 3
years saw him
settle down a bit, at Vasco da Gama, the club that introduced him to
professional soccer. Romario found his pace again, scoring 41
times in 46 league matches but in 2002, he found himself
playing for another Brazilian club, namely Fluminense, in the 2002-2003
season.
When
everyone thought the
Brazilian striker would settle down, Al Saad came in with a financial
offer that no one could have refused, especially Romario who seemed
keen to travel the World. His spell with the Quatari side would not be
long and by the start of the 2003-2004 season, he was in Brazil again,
playing for Fluminense again.
Unfortunately, a conflict with the head
coach of the team saw him get fired in 2004, so he
decided to go back to the team that launched him into soccer, Vasco Da
Gama (it was his 3 spell with the club).
By the time
he started the
2005-2006 season for Vasco, no one really gave him a chance of staying
at the club for more than one season and that's exactly what happened.
24 Romario goals helped Vasco win the title, but the striker moved on
to Miami FC in a lucrative deal.
He did spend a full season in the
United States, but only half of it for Miami FC...the second part of
2006 saw him joining Adelaide United, although he barely played for
this team.
Nowadays, he
plays for Vasco
again, for the fourth time in his career, at age 41. Just recently, he
managed to score what he believes to be his 1,000th official
goal, thus equalizing Pele's
record, however many believe that Romario only has 930 goals and not
1000, since he counted goals Romario had scored in unofficial matches
as well.
All in all,
with a career that
spanned over 23 seasons at 9 different teams (he did switch teams 16
times thought, although often returning to a team he played for in the
past) and over 930 certain goals under his belt, a World Cup and a long
list of trophies won on every continent he played on, he is undoubtedly
one of soccer's greatest strikers of all times.
