This is going to be a controversial thread that could potentially be hijacked by members of Romario's cult. Despite the risk I think it is time to put to bed once and for all the myth that Romario was a top 20 all time player. Romario is commonly regarded as a top 2 ST of his generation when the truth of the matter is he really wasn't close at all to Marco van bastens (certainly not at club level) Van Basten was the ultimate big game ST scoring and assisting goals in 2 European cup finals Scoring a legendary goal in a European championship final Van bastens goals directly resulted in saachi's Milan winning 2 European cups and a couple league titles (Of course he had help from a legendary support cast from back to front ie demetrio albertini, Baresi,Maldini,gullit etc) Dream team in comparison wasn't too shabby but Romario could only win a solitary la liga title then completely failed the next season bar a few CL games that have been grossly exaggerated by his fanboys In the first half of the 90s Barcelona wasn't just the dominant team in Spain but in fact the whole of Europe. For 3 consecutive seasons Barcelona without Romario had won the la liga title In 1992/93 by a single point ahead of Madrid In 1991/92 by a single point ahead of Madrid In 1990/91 by 10 points ahead of atletico Madrid with Romario they could only win the title on goal difference ahead of deportivo a team as dominant and talented as dream team was clearly capable of winning league titles with or without the services of Romario. It has already been established that Romario was average at best in the 93/94 CL season. Barcelona just happened to make the final were they were demolished by Milan Romario was abysmal in the final and not much better in the entire competition here's the catch without Romario Barcelona were perfectly capable of winning the cl as showcased in 92/93 with romario they could still make the final largely without his help throughout the entire competition correct me if I'm wrong but this is the definition of a dominant team. (Barcelona frankly did not improve with Romario if anything they had declined IMO) now this is were things start to get a bit touchy I honestly think romario was a very overrated goalscorer in the eredivisie he could never score more than 19 open play goals per season in all competitions in Europe he could never score more than 32 goals which was very average stuff even within the context of his own era (There are a shit load of examples of strikers scoring 35+ goals a season throughout the mid eighties till the nineties and even beyond) And lastly I don't think anybody really appreciates how significant his goal tally had increased in Brazil In 8 seasons of European football he scored 170 goals In 4 seasons for vasco De gama between 1998-2001 he scored 177 goals Conclusion The reality is the vast majority of his goals came in Ali baba leagues (at least 70% of all his career goals) Comparisons to R9 are beyond far fetched matter of fact he was inferior to Dennis Bergkamp for most of his time in Holland if we factor in all the players that played between 88-95 romario would arguably not even make top 5 Marco van Basten Dennis Bergkamp Roberto Baggio dejan savicevic Micheal Laudrup gheorghe hagi hristo Stoichkov During their peaks weren't all as good if not better than Romario ever was. people may not want to hear this but pre 93/94 Romario was barely a top 3 ST in Europe(he regularly did not make the cut for top 10 player in the world) after 1993/94 (where he was only great in la liga but abysmal in every other competition he played) he suddenly became a untouchable goat level striker OH.. and who can forget world cup 1994 were he singlehandedly carried 10 totally crap players to the trophy. great against b-c level NT sides but totally invisible when it mattered against big teams note: I just had to re watch both romario's and Lionel messi's WC final performances to determine which was the more overrated performance and I can confidentiality say that lio vs germany was at least a whole tier greater than romario's disappearing act against Italy romario did not create chances and in fact missed 2 very easy tapin finishes messi wasn't great by any definition but at least he tried right until the very end of the match (With attempted dribbles including a successful attempt when he skimmed max hummels, a few missed shots and a half chance for higuain) I've heard quite often that romario's golden ball is arguably the best since Maradona 86 this for sure ranks close to being the biggest joke I have ever heard on this forum (He wasn't even better than hagi up to the QF and certainly in terms of overall influence on the game Roberto Baggio ranks above)
First off, thank you for creating a Romario thread. So now, there is a place for Romario fans to praise their idol instead of hijacking all threads with Romario talk. As for Romario being overrated, most people dont rate him as highly as some of the people in BS (Which is ironic since BS also stands for Bullshit which is what it is) I personally think he is definitely a top 50 player, top 20 is a stretch but doable. Top 15 0r better is close to impossible though.
Agree with you, I thinks there is no consensus about Romario being a top 20 all timer, I think most people out there rank him alongside Ronaldinho, which means, If the ranking put more value on ability, technique and flair, he might be rated as a top 20, but if the ranking is more based on the consistency of performances throughout the entire career, he is maybe a top 40 I think. About Carlito's points, there is some truth about his inconsistency even at his peak, but to be fair injuries affected Romario ratings and were detrimental for his chances to make top 10 in some years. He played few matches in 90, 91 due to injuries, he made world soccer player of the year top 10 in 88 and 89, IIRC. I was impressed by his performances in Europe in 92/93 season, but I can not say how he played in league level.