Canvas Is Clean for Romario
Romario de Souza Faria owns a bar in Rio de Janeiro.
There’s nothing unusual about that. Lots of sporting figures invest in business enterprises.
It’s how this particular establishment is decorated that earns it a mention here. Romario, it seems, is partial to having artists paint the restroom doors with caricatures of those whose path he crosses.
When Mario Zagallo, Brazil’s 1998 World Cup coach, dropped Romario from his roster for the tournament in France, the striker responded by having a little artwork done at his bar.
Patrons found it amusing. Zagallo did not. He went to court to force Romario to remove a cartoon that showed him seated in the restroom, his pants around his ankles.
Romario wasn’t deterred.
Before long there was another cartoon on the door. This time it showed his bitter rival, Edmundo, in the company of a woman who was not his wife.
Bizarrely, it wasn’t that he was being painted on toilet doors that upset Edmundo. It was who he was with.
“It depicts me with a person who does not bring me good memories,” Edmundo said in protest.
Brazilian soccer, it seems, has far more interesting sidelights than the game in this part of the world.
Today, Romario returns to the scene of his greatest triumph when Brazil plays the United States in a friendly international at the Rose Bowl at 1 p.m.
In the same stadium almost seven years ago, Romario, who turned 35 on Jan. 29, helped Brazil win the 1994 World Cup, a feat for which he was named player of the tournament and FIFA’s world player of the year.
The images of Romario and his strike partner, Bebeto, performing Bebeto’s “rocking the baby” celebration after scoring goals remain a vivid memory of USA ’94.
Since then, Romario’s career has been a roller-coaster ride. Not surprising, really, for someone who shrugged off his shantytown origins to become a millionaire and internationally known soccer icon.
A few weeks ago, Edilson, another of the Brazilian players in town for today’s match, bemoaned that spontaneity and improvisation were being coached out of the Brazilian team.
“Nowadays, Brazilian football represses the players,” he told Lance, a Rio sports newspaper. “Brazilian players feel like prisoners on the field. Coaches limit talent by demanding that we play tactically.”
Edilson might feel that way, but not Romario.
Headstrong, outspoken and marching always to his own drummer, Romario is a magnet who attracts praise and controversy in equal measure. For more than a decade, he has seldom been out of the headlines.
And at all levels of the game:
* On the club level, his career has taken him from Vasco da Gama in Brazil to PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands to Barcelona in Spain to Flamengo in Brazil to Valencia in Spain, back to Flamengo and finally back to Vasco da Gama.
When he returned to Rio in 1995, after seven years in Europe, thousands of fans turned out for a three-hour parade through the city.
“You don’t even need to ask me why I’m back,” Romario said at the time. “Just look out onto the streets and see the joy of the people.”
* On the Olympic team level, he found success in Seoul in 1988 when he finished as the top scorer with seven goals, taking Brazil to the silver medal.
He had hoped to be chosen as an over-age player for the 1996 Atlanta Games, but Zagallo went with Bebeto and Ronaldo instead and Brazil had to settle for the bronze.
Last year, Romario desperately wanted to compete in the Sydney Olympics and received huge support from fans and the media.
“The Olympic Games never leave my mind,” he said. “It’s the only title I haven’t won in the national team.”
But Coach Wanderley Luxemburgo followed Zagallo’s 1996 lead and left Romario out. Brazil was ousted in the quarterfinals by eventual winner Cameroon and Luxemburgo was fired.
He received a parting shot from Romario.
“The coach should keep out of the way,” he said. “He is an important figure, of course, but is more likely to lose a match than win it. Matches are won by players.”
* On the national team level, Romario has gone from the triumph of 1994 to the disappointment of 1998 to the hope of 2002. He wants to play in next year’s World Cup in Japan and South Korea and his recall to the national team after a two-year absence has put him on course for that.
Brazil was struggling in qualifying competition when Romario was brought back to the squad last year at 34. He responded by promising goals, then delivered them, scoring three in a 5-0 rout of Bolivia and four in a 6-0 victory over Venezuela.
“As long as I’m picked, I will continue scoring goals,” he said.
His ambition now, Romario said, is to surpass Pele’s record of 95 goals for Brazil. According to his count, he has 73. According to the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), which doesn’t count the goals he has scored in the Olympic and other age-restricted matches, he has 59.
Of course, it remains to be seen if new Coach Emerson Leao can cope with his star’s unpredictable lifestyle.
Rival Edmundo is nicknamed “the animal,” but Romario’s moniker might well be “the party animal.” If he’s not on the soccer field, he can usually be found at a nightclub.
“Nobody can say anything about my private life,” he once said. “I am as I am, and cannot change.
“When I don’t go out, I don’t score goals.”
The U.S. might want to check on Romario’s whereabouts Friday night to get an idea of how today’s game will go.
Meanwhile, Leao might want to keep in mind that if he fails to take Romario to the World Cup next year, there’s always that bar in Rio where the restroom door might need a new coat of paint.
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Today’s Game
* Who: U.S. vs. Brazil
* What: Exhibition between men’s national soccer teams
* Where: Rose Bowl
* When: 1 p.m.
* TV: Channel 7
