Romário Biography

Romário de Souza Faria, better known simply as Romário, is a former Brazilian footballer, and one of the most famous Brazilian strikers and politicians. In 1994 Romário was elected FIFA World Player of the year. In 2004 he was included in Pele's list of the 125 greatest living soccer players!

He is also one of the few players who managed to score 1,000 official goals during his 23 year career.

Early Career

Romário was born on the 29th of January 1966 in Rio de Janeiro, also known as the hub for world class Brazilian footballers.

In 1981 he was integrated into the youth system of local youth club Vasco de Gama, where he spent five years, climbing through the ranks until he was promoted to the first team in 1985.

His three seasons at the club, where he was immediately thrown in to the deep end, earned him valuable experience as well fame from overseas which came in the shape of an offer from Dutch powerhouse PSV Eindhoven.

PSV Eindhoven

From 1988 to 1992 the both footed Romário played in the Eredivisie for PSV Eindhoven. His coach there was the Dutchman Guus Hiddink, who described Romário as "the most interesting player I ever worked with" and especially praised his enormous presence and strong nerves in important games, in which he often scored the winning goal.

With PSV he won the League in 1989, 1991 and 1992 on top of being elected Footballer of the Year in the Netherlands in 1989. He scored a total of 174 goals for PSV Eindhoven.

FC Barcelona

In 1993 he moved for a transfer fee of six million dollars to Spanish giants FC Barcelona, where he formed a furious attack along with players like Michael Laudrup, Hristo Stoichkov and Josep Guardiola.

With 30 goals in 33 games, he was top scorer in the Spanish League and helped Barcelona to the first of two Spanish league titles.

At the El Clásico against Real Madrid, he managed to score a hat trick, and also assisted a goal for a 5-0 final score.

In 1994, he led his team to the title defense, as well as victory in the Spanish Supercup.

His coach was in Barcelona Johan Cruyff, who characterized Romário as the "genius of the penalty area".

Between Rio de Janeiro and Valencia

In 1995, the newly crowned world champion returned, initially on loan back, to Brazil to play for Flamengo. There he formed together with the two players Edmundo and Sávio an attacking trident which was characterized by the local press as "the best storm of the world".

In 1996, Flamengo won the Brazilian championship. In the 1996/97 and 1997/98 seasons, Romário went on loan at Valencia.

In 2000, Romário returned to Vasco da Gama and helped the club win the Copa Mercosur and the Brazilian championship title. He was also elected to South America's Footballer of the Year in that same year.

After a couple of years at Vasco de Gama, he had another two-year stint at Fluminese, after which he returned to Vasco de Gama for a third time. He then spent some time in the USL first division with Miami FC, as well as in the A League with Adelaide United.

Back at Vasco de Gama

From January 2007 he was back at Vasco da Gama. However, he had no permission to play as a player, according to FIFA regulations, as he may only be in use for a maximum of two clubs in one season.

On the 20th of May 2007 he scored his 1000th goal against Recife, something only achieved by compatriots Pele and Arthur Friedenreich before him!

On the 15th of April 2008, Romário announced that he would retire from professional Football.

International Career

For the Brazilian national football team Romário scored 55 goals in 70 international matches making him the third top scorer of all-time for Brazil behind Pele and Ronaldo!

He played his debut on the 23rd of May 1987 in Dublin against Ireland and scored his first goal five days later in Helsinki against Finland.

Romário had the expected significant share of the Brazilian World Cup victory in 1994, when he was elected the best player of the tournament. In a very controlled team, he stood out as the only "artist" on the ball.

He scored five goals in that tournament.

On the 27th of April 2005, almost four years after his penultimate International Match, he played his farewell game in which he contributed a goal for the 3-0 win against Guatemala.