Romario

Romario de Souza Faria (born January 29, 1966 in Rio de Janeiro), better known simply as Romario is a Brazilian football player. He is one of a select group of players with over 50 goals in international matches and one of Brazil's most famous and outstanding forwards. He is considered to be one of the greatest footballers in the history of the game.

Romario is the 2nd highest scorer in the history of professional football, being surpassed only by Pelé. On January 28, 2006, one day before his fortieth birthday, he scored his 950th goal (official FIFA count). He is pursuing the 1.000 "One-Thousand" goal, a mark obtained only by 1 other player in history: Pelé.

He started his career playing for Vasco da Gama, where he won two State Championships (1987/88). Between 1988 and 1992 he played for PSV Eindhoven, who won the Dutch League in 1989, 1991 and 1992. In 1993 he moved to FC Barcelona and won the Spanish League the same year. As a member of the Brazilian national team Romario won the silver Olympic medal in Seoul in 1988. Partnering with Bebeto in the attack, he led his country to the 1994 World Cup title, scoring five goals in the tournament. He was voted the most outstanding player of the tournament and captured the imagination of soccer fans everywhere with his incredible skill and touch. Romário was named FIFA World Player of the Year in 1994, after being the runner-up in 1993. In 1995 he returned to Brazil to play for Flamengo, spent the next year in Valencia.. In 1998, he missed out the World Cup due to injury and then returned to Flamengo until 1999.

He played for Vasco da Gama again, winning with them the Mercosur Cup and the Brazilian League in 2000. From 2002 until 2004 he played for Fluminense. On October 21, 2004 he was fired from the club after a conflict with the coach. He then went back to play for the team he started in, Vasco da Gama, and has been playing then ever since. He has recently hinted that he might play for the entire season of 2006, and then retire, although his retirement has been announced numerous times before.

On April 28th 2005 Romario played his last game with the Brazilian national team. He scored the second goal on Brazil's 3-0 win against Guatemala.

In 2005 at nearly 40 years of age Romario scored an outstanding amount of goals (22) in the Brazilian Championship, making him the league's top goalscorer.

Despite rumors stating he would play for Corinthians or Fluminense during the 2006 season Romario decided to stay for another season at Vasco da Gama. He is the second best scorer of all times in the Brazilian League being leading scorer 6 times Romario was named as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.

Many of Romario's fans, both in Brazil and around the world, feel that he is still, at 40 years of age, good enough to play for Brazil in the World Cup to be held in Germany 2006, but that appears highly unlikely as Romario has retired from the national side. Brazil are unlikely to include him, at age 40, despite Romario being the top scorer in the 2005 Championship.