Romario, Brazil's legendary striker, is two goals short of reaching a milestone: his 1,000th goal.
At the age of 41, he is the main striker of his team, Vasco da Gama, one of Brazil's leading squads. 
This year alone, he has scored three hat-tricks.
If he does not score his 1,000th on Wednesday, his fans will look forward to Sunday, when Vasco confronts its most bitter rival, Flamengo, at Brazil's holy football ground, the Maracana Stadium.
So far, Romario has been outscored in world football only by Pele.
The legendary player hit the net 1,282 times - the only one to have scored more than 1,000 times.
And now the player known by his many fans as Shorty is likely to follow suit.
But is he really?
Own goal count
The goal count was done mainly by Romario himself and in order to speed up the process, he recently took part in a series of friendly matches and played short seasons for squads in the US and in Australia that would make Accrington Stanley look like Manchester United.
In Brazil, the local press acknowledges that Romario is nearly there, but says that the numbers are somewhat debatable.
Placar, one of Brazil's leading football magazines, claims Romario's personal stats credit him with 100 goals more than he has really scored. 
"Currently, there are several parallel counts going on in Brazil," says Joao Carlos Assumpção of SportTV, a Brazilian sports channel.
"Some say Romario has seven goals fewer than he claims and others think he should not include the ones he scored during his youth league days, before becoming a professional.
"Critics say that the perfect day for goal 1,000 would be on April Fools Day," he says.
But many of Brazil's football pundits and fans have chosen not to dig deep in the controversy, for they believe Romario has more than earned the goals he claims.
Among them is Tostao, currently one of Brazil's leading football writers and a former legend of the 1970 Brazilian squad. 
Romario is absurdly gifted 
Tostao claims that whether he is about to reach 1,000 or a bit less is irrelevant.
"Some goals are being disputed because they were not scored in official games.
"But it's Romario's figures and he should be respected. Whether he scored 900, 950 or 1000, that does not diminish the genius of Romario, one of the greatest players of all time."
According to Tostao, "he is not only a fabulous striker, but a player who foresees the moves of his opponents in a few seconds. It's a knowledge that goes beyond logic. Romario is absurdly gifted".
Jose Geraldo Couto, who is also a leading film critic, says that the controversy surrounding Romario's 1000 goals is a bit like the famous quote from the western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
"A great deal of football history is based on myth and cannot rely solemnly on facts and figures," the critic says.
"The exact number is less relevant than the fact that Romario always dreamed of scoring 1,000 goals".
0 comments:
Post a Comment