Ok what is the world coming to? Or more specifically, what is Brazil coming to? The more you hear and read in the media, the more that beautiful country just sounds like Mad Max in reality; completely lawless and ruled by violence. It really comes to something though when universally adored legends are the victims of crime on their own home turf. I’m not sure why it’s more affecting, but it’s almost as if robbing your heroes is the last step into pure soulless depravity. It’s trashing your childhood, and memories, and even most basic feelings, but apparently that’s just how they roll in Brazil.
We told you a little while ago how Ronaldo was recently hi-jacked for his Ferrari and personal possessions in Sao Paulo, but if that wasn’t bad even, now it has broken to the press that the 67-year-old Pele, perhaps the greatest footballer of all time and certainly Brazil’s most famous citizen, has also been the victim of a robbery at gunpoint. The two-time World Cup winner was accosted in the middle of the day by a 10-strong gang of hoodlums in Brazil, who stole his gold necklace, a mobile phone, and an expensive wrist watch. The national treasure’s chauffeur-driven car became stuck in a traffic jam in Guaruja, close to PernambucoBeach where Pele has a holiday house, and this is where the gang pounced. Such road-side robberies are quite common in some areas of Brazil, with armed gangs from the slums erecting makeshift road blocks themselves to halt traffic before terrorizing the bottle-necked civilians.
I know this is a part of life, but is nothing sacred anymore? Did the recognition of probably someone these gang members idolized not stir any emotion in them? It’s a tragic state of affairs, but I guess looking on the bright side, at least the Great One was left unharmed.
A little while ago now we brought you the sad news that perhaps the greatest striker I have ever seen was being forced to retire after a recurrence of a knee injury that had plagued him for several years. The Brazilian maestro Ronaldo was my idol growing up in the game, and the forward above all others that I aspired to be. My earliest footballing memory however is a couple of years before Ronaldo really burst on the scene, watching another man in that famous yellow jersey lead his team to World Cup glory in 1994. I am of course talking about Romario, a player who alongside such other greats as Dunga, Bebeto and Cafu defined the magic of football in a way only South Americans can. Now I am sad to say that he too has announced his retirement aged 42, but having reached a milestone that only one other man in history can lay claim to; he has scored more than 1000 professional goals. The other? Who else, but Pele.
So let’s start at the beginning then. Born in very humble beginnings just outside of Rio de Janeiro, Romario started his career playing for Vasco da Gama where he won two State Championships in the late 1980s. After being scouted by Piet de Visser, he moved to PSV Eindhoven where like so many Brazilians of his era, he shone. In the five seasons he played in the Dutch league between 1988 and 1992, Romario led his side to the title in 1989, 1991 and 1992, scoring a quite inconceivable 98 goals in 109 games in all competitions. Unsurprisingly this kind of form attracted some attention, and in 1993 Barcelona came calling. In a side that included the likes of Hristo Stoichkov, Michael Laudrup and Ronald Koeman, he once again led his team to the League championship, becoming the season's top goal-scorer too with 30 in 33 league matches. amed FIFA World Player of the Year in 1994, after his country’s World Cup success in America he returned to Brazil to play for Flamengo, where he stayed until 1999 despite a strangely troubled year back in Spain with Valencia. The goals still flowed, with more than 30 in 50 appearences, but Romario seemed to be going through the motions a bit. The itch was satisfied with a return to Vasco da Gama in 2000, where in a further two seasons with his formative club he won the Mercosur Cup and the Brazilian League, while on a personal level being awarded the Brazilian Footballer of the Year trophy as well as the overall South American Footballer of the Year prize.
From 2002 until 2004 he moved for Fluminense, and it looked like his career was finally at an end as he was in touching distance of his 40th birthday. On October 21, 2004 he was actually fired from the club after a conflict with the coach, and jeered off by the fans who felt he was too old to compete any longer. Like a man possessed Romario turned once again to Vasco da Gama and in the crowning glory of an epic career, Romário scored 22 goals in the Brazilian Championship, making him the league's top goal-scorer at 39 years of age. The 1000th goal came almost a year ago now, from the penalty spot against Sport Recife, and was greeted with a carnival of sorts from the fans who forced the game to be stopped for more than 20 minutes to allow for celebrations. Ever the spoil-sports, FIFA dispute this record as they claim 71 goals came in youth football and friendlies, but even playing by their rules, 929 goals ain’t too bad a tally.
As a member of the national team, Romario won the silver Olympic medal in Seoul in 1988, scoring seven goals, and was part of the Brazilian squad in the World Cups of 1990 and 1994. He scored 71 goals in 85 international matches, making him the second highest goal-scorer in the history of the Brazilian team, with his last game for them in 2005 at the age of 39. At World Cup ‘94, he partnered famously with Bebeto in attack to lead his country to a record 4th title, winning the accolade of the tournament’s most outstanding player in the process. Describing his ideal strike-partner, Romario told FIFA.com last year that: “(Bebeto) was my finest accomplice out on the pitch because we knew each other so well. We had a near-telepathic understanding.”
In the years that followed, Romario formed the Ro-Ro with the aforementioned Ronaldo, an attack that was feared to say the least. The pair had everything: pace, power, movement, vision and most importantly, blistering shooting ability off either foot. The peak of the Ro-Ro was a 6 – 0 victory over Australia in the 1997 Confederations Cup where they each scored a hat-trick, but between them they have won I think literally every world honour and trophy that’s worth winning. When asked what made their partnership so explosive, Romario humbly played down their outrageous gifts: “we had the opportunity and the honour to play alongside some very technically gifted, top-class footballers, and that made our job easier.” It’s a shame that Romario did not make it to subsequent World Cups, as a muscular problem kept him out of France 1998 and a bust-up with coach Scolari left him controversially at home for Korea 2002, but you can hardly criticize a man with statistics such as his, and a career that has spanned almost my entire lifetime.
To add a final bit of polish to what has been a quite miraculous career, here then are what three of the greatest players to ever touch a football said about him as he celebrated that 1000th goal:
Johan Cruyff :“(Romario was) a genius of the goal area.”
Diego Maradona : “(Romario was) an incredible finisher…he would be in my all-time dream team without any hesitation.”
Roberto Baggio : “Romario is one of the greatest players of all time. He has good technique and personality. He is a master of art in the penalty area.”
You will find Romario now chilling out in Brazil for a couple of years but he is keen to stay within the game, even briefly acting as Vasco da Gama’s player-manager earlier this year. He said today his priority now is preparing for World Cup 2014, to be held in Brazil, and we at STT hope that for the good of the game that he is indeed involved in some capacity. We salute you Romario. See a small chunk of his 1000 goals for yourself here:
Ok so David Beckham was pretty much playing right-back last night because he doesn’t really have the legs to get up and down the pitch at full pace anymore, but this shouldn’t detract from the magnitude of his international achievement. Swelling with pride after the game, he rightly extolled the virtues of the 100 Cap Club he has now joined; namely Billy Wright, Sir Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore and Peter Shilton. Now most of these guys were staring for club and country well before I was born, so this seemed like as good a time as any for a quick history lesson. No talking at the back!
Billy Wright was the first player in the world to reach the landmark of 100 appearances when he led out England against Scotland at Wembley in April 1959, and he held this record for more than a decade. An old-fashioned bruising centre-half, he was the epitome of English spirit and pride, also playing his entire club career of 20 years at Wolves where he finished with 541 appearances. Not only was he playing football during this period though, he was also in the army at the same time, serving from 1943 as a Physical Training Instructor and amazingly making more than 100 appearances in wartime football alone. In virtually every way he was the perfect footballing role model; captained his country a record 90 times, was never booked or sent off, and even married a pop star (Joy Beverley of the Beverley Sisters, whoever they are). He died in 1994 from stomach cancer aged 70 but his spirit lives on in an honorary stand and bronze statue at Molineux.
Next up is World Cup winner Sir Bobby Charlton, finishing with 106 caps, just one more than Wright managed. So much about Charlton was miraculous that it seems a bit insulting to just list a load of stats, but having survived national service and the Munich Air Disaster, he went on to become England’s leading ever goal-scorer with 49 international goals. During his 19 years with Manchester United, having been initially signed as a 15-year-old, he made a staggering 759 appearances and averaged a goal every three games in a variety of exemplary Busby Babes teams. With United he won the FA Cup, European Cup and several league titles, while also taking the honour of European Footballer of the Year in 1966 during the World Cup build-up. Obviously his World Cup win is the jewel in the crown, finally defeating West Germany in the final alongside his older brother Jack while hat-trick hero Geoff Hurst took most of the plaudits.
Surely no-one needs to be told that the successful 1966 team was captained by the iconic Bobby Moore, and that leads us nicely onto the next of our centurains. With 108 appearances (90 as captain), Moore is the most highly decorated outfield player in English history, so it seems appropriate that it was he who lifted our sole major international trophy 42 years ago now. An iconic gentleman and professional, he too achieved more than 500 club appearances for his home team, West Ham United, where he played for 16 years before ending his career in the newly set-up North American Soccer League in the 1970s. Unsurprisingly, a statue of the great man stands outside Wembley, and upon his death in 1993, a mass outpouring of emotion followed from the nation. A couple of quotes from perhaps his two greatest peers sum him up better than I ever can:
“He was my friend as well as the greatest defender I ever played against. The world has lost one of its greatest football players and an honourable gentleman.” -Pelé
“Bobby Moore was a real gentleman and a true friend.” -Franz Beckenbauer
Long-serving goalkeeper Peter Shilton completes the century club with a phenomenal 125 caps to his name, along with more than 1000 professional club appearances in a career that spanned three decades. Admirably ambitious from a young age, he had perhaps the greatest keeper of all time in Gordon Banks as a friend and rival from the start of his professional career, and along with similar competition from Ray Clemence in the years that followed, it was this that kept him sharp at the highest level for so long. Undoubtedly the crowning glory in Shilton’s career came under Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest, winning the League championship once, and both the League Cup and European Cup twice in the late 1970s. In terms of individual honours, he received the MBE, and later the OBE, as well as being awarded the prestigious Order of Merit by the PFA on his retirement from international football in 1990.
Between the four of them, they won 444 caps and incredibly represented England at every World Cup finals we reached between 1950 and 1990.
So there you have it. Wright, Charlton, Moore, Shilton and now Beckham: the England Centurians (insert your own embarrassing pun about lions and roaring here). RESPECT.
