Few people’s interview list over the past year features Neymar, Robert Lewandowski, Xavi Hernández and Iker Casillas. But then not many interviewers have the pulling power of Romário. Thirty-two years after the former Brazil striker was crowned world champion and best player at the 1994 World Cup, he is travelling far and wide to speak with football greats for his YouTube channel.
Romário began his “face to face with the man” project a year ago. “This whole Romário TV thing is a brand-new situation in my life,” he says. “I’m really happy, enjoying it. It’s so cool.
“It’s definitely a way to reconnect with my past. I stopped playing in 2006. This role as an interviewer takes me right back to moments I’ve experienced, especially when I interview people from my generation. That’s perhaps one of the most important reasons why I’m enjoying what I’m doing now.”
Romário is one of the greatest players not only of Brazilian football, but world football, and is not shy of saying so. “I consider myself one of the five greatest players of all time,” he says with characteristic confidence.
Questioned on who else makes his list, he produces a top six. “Pelé, Maradona, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, me and Ronaldo. That’s it. I’d give myself an 11 out of 10 as player.”
The 11 rating also harks back to the number he wore in the early and later years of his club career and for most of his 71 Brazil appearances, including at the 1994 World Cup. Never a big fan of training or putting in a lot of effort, he was criticised for his behaviour, but defends himself powerfully.
“Romário was lazy,” he says, repeating a regular accusation. “Romário didn’t practise the way many people thought I should train. But I scored goals.
“I was a force to be reckoned with on the pitch and screw the rest. They had to put up with me. Anyone who didn’t like it had to put up with it.”
Romário’s era was very different. It was a world without social media, allowing him to have a busy life off the field without being recorded or put under pressure by supporters. Romário never hid his passion for nightlife and if he played today he would have to behave differently, though he might also receive more recognition for his achievements on the pitch.
“I’d have liked social media in my generation. I’m sure I would have wanted this back in my day. The internet really shows who you truly are. In football, for example, perhaps 50% of Brazil didn’t have access to my matches and didn’t know how much I played football. Today, everyone knows everything.
“But there’s the other side. People didn’t know about the stupid shit I did. That would’ve been a nightmare, but it’s part of life. If social media had existed in my era, I probably wouldn’t have done as much shit either. But the little I did do, people would’ve known about.”
Romário is smiling. His provocative personality catapulted him after football into politics, a career to which he is committed alongside his YouTuber’s life. He began it 16 years ago with PSB, Brazil’s socialist party, and was elected as a federal deputy in 2010 and a senator in 2014.
In 2017, he moved to the centrist party Podemos and four years later, in the wave of populism under the then president, Jair Bolsonaro, accepted an invitation to join PL, the ruling far-right party of the time. Unlike Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest for an attempted coup d’état, Romário opposes liberalising gun ownership. He is pushing for greater investment in education, not a priority for PL.
“My focus is on education, health, social issues and sport,” he says. “I fight for people with disabilities, for the inclusion of people. I don’t pressure anyone to sign my project in exchange for something, like legalising drugs. Legalising abortion? I won’t sign that. Arming the country? I won’t sign that. I only sign projects I believe are good.”
So how would he rate himself as a politician? Another 11, he says.
Romário’s independent path in politics, with his changes of party and refusal to toe the line, has drawn criticism from both sides. Presidential elections are scheduled for October, with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, seeking re-election, and Flávio Bolsonaro, Jair Bolsonaro’s son who inherited the position as the PL candidate with his father ineligible, the favourites.
Romário hopes Carlo Ancelotti’s team can first win Brazil’s sixth World Cup and return the country to more peaceful days. “We’re in a situation very similar to 1994,” he says. “Politically speaking, the country is in a mess. There’s this polarisation between left and right and violence is too high.
“There’s a lot of negative news in every part of the country. I’m saying this from personal experience because I lived through it: a win for Brazil would bring relief and joy to our people who are suffering. I’m sure it will ease the tensions in the country. The World Cup title brings hope for better days, hope for good things. I really hope Brazil wins the World Cup, but it’s going to be very difficult.”
Romário’s pessimism regarding Brazil’s chances stems more from the players’ performances for the Seleção than the squad’s quality, although he feels the country has not produced greats in the way it did in his time with Ronaldo and Ronaldinho and before that with Zico and many others.
“Brazil has players who perform well for their clubs. They play very well in the Premier League and La Liga. They are idols in their teams. But when they pull on the Brazil jersey they fail to deliver. I hope that’s behind them now and that they can at least perform at 80% of the level they show for their clubs. If they can do that, Brazil will have a chance of winning the title.”
Romário believes a lack of “spectacular” players has enhanced his popularity. “I think I’ve become even more important than I was before. Years ago, you had Romário, you had Ronaldo, but today there’s no one.
“That’s why we remain important. We hold this great significance within Brazilian football because in our day we achieved and represented [the country]. Unfortunately, today, no one else represents.”
Romário says there are five teams better than Brazil, but England are not among them. “Brazil has a stature and the Brazil shirt carries a weight that people respect a great deal. England are a good team, but I see the other sides as better.
“I like Harry Kane, [Jude] Bellingham and [Bukayo] Saka. They’re smart players, with great technique, who make a difference. They might cause a bit of a stir, but I wouldn’t put them among the favourites. My favourites are France, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Germany and Brazil.”
The “short man”, as Romário is known, owes his life to football, but is not a big fan of the game as a spectator. He generally prefers a day at the beach to an afternoon watching matches, though he makes exceptions for Brazil and the Premier League, where Pep Guardiola, a former Barcelona teammate, has been a draw.
“Pep was always a man with a very different kind of intelligence for a player. So much so that, even though he was the youngest in a team of stars like [Hristo] Stoichkov, [José Mari] Bakero, [Ronald] Koeman and [Miguel Ángel] Nadal, he really stood out. He knew how to dictate the game.
“[Johan] Cruyff had a lot of faith in him. Pep was a lad who paid close attention to Cruyff’s talks. He was always focused on training. He carried that over into his coaching career and that’s why he’s the best. He’s among the top two or three of all-time.
“He used to say that when I was in the dressing room, if I had my head down and was quiet, it was going to be a bad day. But if I was lively, dancing, no one could stop me. Everyone has days when things just don’t go their way. It was no different for me, but those days were rare.”
Before leaving, Romário takes control of the conversation and interviews himself in what he claims would be the “greatest interview of all time”.
“Romário, how did you manage to play so much while putting in so little effort?” he asks. “The others were sleeping and you were out on the streets. The others were eating and you were sucking on ice lollies on the beach. How did you do it?
“Now Romário is going to answer … I’ve always had a lot of faith in myself. I was sure that if I’d gone down the path of being an athlete, I wouldn’t have got where I did.
“I was born in [the favela] Jacarezinho, I went to live in Vila da Penha [a suburb]. I used to play barefoot. I hurt the tip of my toe a lot. I had to play football the way I felt comfortable, the way I felt happy. That’s why I was like that.”
