Romário de Souza Faria, popularly know as just “Romario” is one of the greatest and most prolific strikers of all time. His 55 goals in only 70 games for Brazil just shows how prolific he was at scoring goals.
Romario was one of the first centre-forwards that could operate outside of the penalty area. He would drop deep to pick up the ball in midfield, he would switch flanks, run past defenders through acceleration and dribbling.
Romario was also a master of operating in tight spaces and his toe poke finishing became his trademark. Unfortunately, besides all the good stuff, Romario wasn’t without his controversies. He often clashed with teammates, managers, media. He had it all, he was tough and easy at the same time. Here is the complete story of why Romario career fell apart, how he was hated by his Barcelona teammates and also how he caused the sacking of legendary player and manager, Johan Cruyff. Let’s Go!
1) Romario – The Beginning
Romario started his career in Brazil. He then joined PSV as a 21-year-old where he spent five years ripping it up in Holland and becoming a superstar. He left PSV for then Barcelona in 1993. Johan Cruyff was the manager of the Barcelona dream team who had just won the Champions League and three consecutive league titles.
The team was full of stars including Laudrup, Koeman and Stoichkov, but joining a team full of stars didn’t faze Romario at all as he declared himself the best striker in the world and he promised that he would score 30 league goals in his debut season. Fortunately for him, Romario would actually go on to score 30 league goals just like he promised.
Romario also made the promise that the upcoming 1994 World Cup would be known as Romario’s World Cup. Again, that prediction also came right. Romario won the World Cup and he was voted FIFA’s best player. All these made Romario very arrogant, but he backed it up on the pitch and people tolerated that because of his talent.
2) His Barcelona Career
Romario was the best player in the world at this time and he was in a team full of stars so it was a match made in heaven. They ripped up the Spanish league. Barcelona would often do beautiful build-up play and Romario would be there to provide the clinical finish.
Romario had a love-hate relationship with his teammate Stoichkov because they both believed that they were the best player on the team. However, this competitiveness made both of them better and they scored more goals which allowed them to build a friendship. They would go on to win the Spanish league including a 5-0 battering of rivals Real Madrid with Romario scoring. They also reached the Champions League final however they lost 4-0 to AC Milan.
This was an early sign of Romario and the star players having too much arrogance because they believed in their own hype and Milan capitalised on the fact that they were the underdogs.
3) Winning The World Cup
For a Brazilian to be considered great you have to win the World Cup. Romario went into the ’94 World Cup in his absolute prime intending to become an icon like Pelé. Romario would go on to score 5 goals in the tournament, one in each of the first three round matches. He scored in the quarterfinal, scored the winner in the semi-final before scoring one of the penalties in the victory against Italy in the final.
As you can imagine, Romario was on top of the world. He already had a reputation for partying, drinking, women, carnivals, relaxing training. Now you can only imagine what winning the World Cup is going to do to him.
4) Post World Cup Events
After the World Cup, Romario spent the whole summer celebrating in Brazil, living a very hedonistic lifestyle. He didn’t turn up on time for Barcelona’s pre-season and the Barcelona teammates were not happy.
You have to remember the contrasting of emotions. Majority of the Barcelona players are coming off the disappointment of getting battered in the Champions League final a few months prior. Whereas, Romario is the only one in a happy mood because he had just won the World Cup. So this is the genesis of where the senior Barca players are starting to get annoyed with Romario as he will turn up late to pre-season with no fitness.
So the senior players demand a meeting to discuss their issues with Romario. After they all let their feelings known, Romario then gets up and screams back at them and he wasn’t backing down. He claimed that all the players were just jealous of him because he had just won the World Cup and the rest got knocked out early in the tournament.
Romario said that he thought this meeting was to congratulate him on winning the World Cup, but it wasn’t that, so he stormed off.
5) End Of The Barcelona “Dream Team” Tenure
As expected, that season was a disaster for Barcelona. Johan Cruyff had completely lost control of the team. Romario carried on partying in Barcelona. He was still celebrating the World Cup win. Romario would turn up to training barely able to move because of being hungover from partying the night before. He would also turn up late for team meetings and Cruyff would then send him home.
Stoichkov, his good friend, would go on to say “Romario never came back after the World Cup. His body was here, but his mind was still in Brazil partying”. So after just only one full season at Barcelona, full of drama, glory and more drama, Romario would be sold to Flamengo the following January.
Barcelona had completely fallen apart. Real Madrid that season would go on to win the Spanish League and Johan Cruyff would be sacked.
So that is the full story of why Romario was hated by his own Barcelona teammates.
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