Romário Appreciation - 987 goals and counting

kinaldo

05/01/2007
Vasco Roll Red Carpet Out For Romário 1000-Goal Quest

40 year-old striker Romário is back in his native and beloved Rio de Janeiro, training to keep his physical fitness within competitive parameters for a hyped return to club of origin Vasco da Gama. According to his own estimates he’s just 13 goals shy of hitting the mythical 1000 goal mark.

The Baixinho is still trying to cut through the red tape that is delaying his official signing, and Vasco hope he’ll be official in time for two upcoming friendlies programmed specifically for the veteran to get even closer to his dream of scoring 1000 goals before retiring.

Then it’s time for the state championships that open the year in Brazil, specifically the ‘Campeonato Carioca’ (first part of the Rio de Janeiro state trophy). Romário is being helped alonmg by physio Romildo Meneses.

“Romário is following a special diet drawn up by the club nutritionist. From food to training schedules, we’re doing our best to ensure that the player is in the best possible condition for his age”, he explained to ‘Jornal dos Sports’.

By Romário’s count – which is disputed by others who claim the real figure is less – reaches an impressive 987 goals and the Vasco squad are well aware that one of the key club aims for the first part of the year will be top help the veteran home grown Baixinho to end his career where it started and with four figure stats attained.

“We are all conscious of how much reaching that amount means to him and there’s total union in the squad that we’ll help one of the greatest players ever to reach that thousandth goal”, explained wingman Wagner Diniz. With a metaphorical red carpet rolled out in Rio, Romário has all the help he could possibly want as he aims for 1000.

http://www.goal.com/en-us/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=203776

Without doubt the most naturally gifted finisher I've ever seen, Romario was (is) a genius. I didn't get to see him play much live - a few times for Barca, the 94 World Cup, some friendlies for Brazil, and a World Club Championship game a few years ago where himself and Edmundo ripped Man Utd apart (I always wondered how he would have faired in the Premiership, or if he could still get in the current Newcastle team...) - but whenever I saw him he never disappointed!

If he hadn't been injured just before the 98 World Cup I'm certain Brazil would have won it. The partnership he had going with Ronaldo at the time was absolutely frightening. Sadly the world was robbed from seeing two of the greatest strikers of their generation and dare I say it, all time, up front together at the highest level.

I can't quite understand why Romario is never (or rarely) mentioned in the same sentence as Pele, Maradona, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Platini etc. Maybe it's because he didn't hang around Europe long enough, even though he was here long enough to win the Pichichi (Spain's Golden Boot) and FIFA World Player of the Year at Barca, but hopefully that will change soon after he retires and reaches 1000 goals.

There's some amazing Romario comps up on Youtube now worth watching if you have an hour to kill during a lunch break or whatever. With so many goals though it's impossible for there to be a definitive comp, but theson3 has done a pretty good job in breaking them down:

Romario vs Goalkeeper 1 on 1 match

Romario drible skills

Romario pass & powerful shot

Romario one touch finish

Romario heading

Romario trap

godtabh

Dont know how accurate the goal tally is. Lots of reports claims he in cludes training matches, youth matches etc in his goal tally and when it comes to senior goals he is no where near 1000 goals.

Still a great player

MisterAnarchy

Superb player,definitely the most clinical and clever finisher of his era.

redspider

I definitely appreciate Romario as player - for me, he was a clinical finisher who also could run at and beat defenders, and I use him as an example of a good finisher. I suppose one reason why he may not be held in the same regard as a Pele or a Maradona was his lack of a brilliant performance at a world cup and its final. He played will at the 1994 WC but it was perceived as a lack-lustre team by many pundits and the final was scoreless. Had he scored a hat-trick or something in that match he would no doubt be rated higher han he is.

His stature was/is small and his skills were Maradona-like. Its amazing that he is still going. For many, he was a lazy type of player, only running when he had to, not being the fittest, yet on those occasions when he did try he was excellent and he had a nose for goal more so than many of the best forwards of today.

Romario was definitely one of the worlds top footballers for me.

Redspider

Andrew 83

Whether or not the 1,000 would be legitimate, it would probably be more legitimate than Pele's 1,000!

iregk

Well I would claim Romario as a true legend. Not the way Irish fans rate John Aldridge as a legend but a real legend. Maldini, Maradonna, Cruijff, Muller, Van Basten, Romario all up there. I'd rate the great Marco well ahead of him for me when it came to finishing but Rom is still miles ahead of most that have played the game. He was quite simply lethal and weather he is close to the 1000 mark or not is just for people with open collar shirts to argue heatidly over breakfast with Jimmy Hill. Do the rest of us care? No. To us he was legend. End of story.

LegacyUser

Worst player I have ever seen...I lie i lie.

Bodhidharma

Romario was always a favourite when i was younger. I altered how i played so i could play like him.

The only one who was close to him in terms of goal scoring was Batistuta,

tdv

Just 10 shy now after scoring a hat-trick for Vasco against Redonda during the weekend. Even at 41 he's still one of the best finishers in the world.

Here's the Hat-trick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OzK9lJ73Cg

Andrew 83

iregk wrote:

Not the way Irish fans rate John Aldridge as a legend but a real legend.

I could be wrong but I think Aldo is one of, if not the, highest goal scorers in British football history. Not bad going. He was also the first non Basque to play for Sociedad.