Romario throws a poisonous dart at the current players: ‘They are very stupid, I would score more than 2,000 goals’

Romario had a talk with EFE about his preparation for United States World Cup 1994, that crowned him as the best player on the planet, his troubled relationship with the coaches and his vision of contemporary football.

The world champion with Brazil in the United States World Cup 1994, Today gray-haired, but in shape, he maintains the same spontaneity that characterized him during his sporting life. He expresses himself clearly. His charisma remains intact.

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“I was always very direct and I had a moment when I was the best in the world and the best in the places I went through. I was always responsible for the victory and responsible for the defeat,” he says.

Last Saturday he felt like a footballer again, when he defended the colors of the America, club that he presides, against Petrópolis, at the start of the second division of the Carioca Championship.

Romário has decided to return to professional football to fulfill his dream of sharing a dressing room with his son. In front of Petropolis He sat on the bench the entire time, although he is convinced that if he were at his peak today he would be even more successful.

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“I think that on the field my success would be greater because today the guys are very stupid. They run too much. In my time football was also physical, it was always like that, but the players were much more technical and much more intelligent,” he said. And he finishes: “I’m sure he would score more than 2,000 goals today.”

Romario There is also these promotion days. This Thursday,
a documentary series that portrays his most intimate and controversial side and describes the behind-the-scenes of the road to the four-time championship of the ‘canarinha’.

July 17 marks 30 years since that final in Pasadena that was resolved on penalties against Italy. Romário was the best of the 1994 World Cup, a title that he actively and passively assured that he would win before the ball started rolling.

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“I knew myself well enough and I knew my opponents, and I concluded that we were better than them,” he recalls.

He also recognizes that the fact of playing in the FC Barcelona along with players of the stature of Michael Laudrup, Pep Guardiola, Hristo Stoichkov, Andoni Zubizarreta, Miguel Ángel Nadal and Guillermo Amor, helped him because it gave him “a lot of confidence and experience.”

“They were fantastic players” and on the bench was “the greatest coach of all time in my opinion, whose name was (Johan) Cruyff“, he says.

Although he always had friction with his coaches. Famous were his clashes with Luis Aragonés, with Cruyff himself, as well as with Carlos Alberto Parreira and Mário Zagallo in the selection.

Romario He has never hidden that he did not like training. “I liked partying a lot. Today I like it a little less because I also have less time,” she jokes.

To defend himself, he brings up that he played at a “high level” until he was 41 years old and “that, without minimal training, is not possible.”

It would also be difficult to decide when and how to train. Romário says that he liked to do just finishing and starting exercises, and that he agreed with the presidents of the clubs to have the freedom to suddenly not attend training for two days without giving explanations.

“When I returned to Brazil, I spoke with the president of the Flamengo, with the one from Vasco, with the one from Fluminense, and we closed an agreement. Then the coach asked me and I told him: talk to the president. That time was an absolute success,” he confesses.
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SPORTS
With EFE.