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The following season, under Robson, Romario was uncontainable. First-touch lobs from the edge of the box; headers at the back post; simple tap-ins; and skilful runs through defences before unleashing a cannon into the net \u2013 Romario would always find a way to embarrass opponents and score. He hammered four past Feyenoord and scored two against Ajax, ending the campaign with 30 goals from as many games while winning the Eredivisie top scorer award for the third time.<\/span><\/p>\n “Thirty yards from goal, he was mustard,” Robson wrote. “He could take anyone on. He was a great finisher, a good hold-up player and was dangerous in the air, despite his modest size.”<\/span><\/p>\n Still, the legendary manager was angered by Romario\u2019s lifestyle. Under Hiddink, other players had complained about the superstar\u2019s lack of defensive work, which Romario responded to by humiliating them as a tackling monster in training. The resentment now, though, had grown further.<\/span><\/p>\n Romario was the highest-paid player in the team and, according to Robson, his co-stars resented the fact that he did not have to train as hard as they did, or even have to be on time for the team bus. <\/span><\/p>\n “In some matches he would be scintillating,” he continued. “In others he would be lethargic, distracted. The players soon recognised Romario’s off days. In one defeat, I overheard Eric Gerets jabbering away to him aggressively\u2026 Eric was saying: ‘Listen you effing this or that, I know you get more than me. I understand that and I don’t quibble with it because you’re a better player than I am. I might save a match, but you can win one. What I quibble about is that on Saturday we all share a bonus, and I’m trying my balls off to get that bonus, and you ain’t. Together, we fight.\u2019”<\/span><\/p>\n As the Englishman put it: “The Romarios of the world don’t realise how much they can undermine the fabric of a team.”<\/span><\/p>\n After Romario sneaked off in the middle of a training session claiming to have a bad back, Robson held a meeting with him using assistant Frank Arnesen, who could speak some Spanish, as a translator. When they told the player to “stop walking off the training ground” and give up his habit of Friday night parties, the coaches were met with silence.<\/span><\/p>\n “All he did was stare, like a cobra, into Frank Arnesen’s eyes, quite aggressively. Frank was getting edgy. He was being defied. He was beginning to feel humiliated. ‘Comprehendo?’ we would ask, as our mini summit wore on, but still Romario wouldn’t speak.” Quiet. Never desperate.<\/span><\/p>\n Romario spent a big chunk of the 1991-92 season out injured, but was still clinical when he played. The season after that, he was deadly again, finishing as top scorer in the newly revamped Champions League even though PSV failed to get beyond the second-round group stage.<\/span><\/p>\n That summer, it was time to go. Hiddink wanted to reunite with him at Valencia, but he was beaten to the punch by compatriot Johan Cruyff, who was eager to add the bombastic Brazilian to his famous Barcelona team. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The following season, under Robson, Romario was uncontainable. First-touch lobs from the edge of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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