Born on this day: Romário de Souza Faria, known simply as Romário, is a Brazilian politician and a former professional footballer. A prolific striker renowned for his clinical finishing, he scored over 700 goals and is one of the few players to score at least 100 goals for three clubs.
He is considered by many to be one of the greatest players of all time. Romário starred for Brazil in their 1994 FIFA World Cup triumph, receiving the Golden Ball as player of the tournament.
He was named FIFA World Player of the Year the same year. He came fifth in the FIFA Player of the Century internet poll in 1999, was elected to the FIFA World Cup Dream Team in 2002, and was named in the FIFA 100 list of the world’s greatest living players in 2004. He scored 34 goals in 46 matches for Barcelona. 98 goals in 110 games for PSV Eindhoven.
Vaso da Gama 207 goals in 279 games. Flamengo 141 goals In 146 games. For Fluminense 45 in 73 games. A remarkable career of 542 goals in 698 club games. Plus 55 memorable goals in 70 games for the Brazilian national team.
Johan Cruyff once said, “One day Romario asked me if he could leave training to go to Brazil for the carnival. I said ‘If you score 2 goals tomorrow, you can go.’ He scored two goals in 20 minutes against Real Madrid & asked for a substitution ‘Coach, my plane is leaving in one hour.’
