RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 15 (Reuters) - They said that he was finished, that he had overstayed his welcome and that he was blemishing his career.
At the age of 39, former PSV Eindhoven, Valencia, Barcelona and Brazil striker Romario has proved them all wrong.
In an age where football places an increasing emphasis on running and physical strength and where even strikers are expected to move back and mark, Romario has finished as top scorer in the Brazilian championship.
Moreover, Brazil's 1994 World Cup winner has done it the old-fashioned way by standing in the penalty area, waiting for the ball to come to him and using stealth and experience to outsmart markers little more than half his age.
"I want to thank the Vasco directors who believed in me and gave me all the freedom I needed to score my goals," Romario said after scoring two penalties in Vasco's last game of the season to finish with 22 goals.
"They can say what they want but goals scored from penalties also count."
"I also have to thank my team mates for their support."
Adding that he planned to continue for at least another year, Romario said: "I feel that I'm in good shape to continue. It's difficult to leave all this."
"I'm not one of those horses that sets off quickly and gets caught with a few furlongs to go. Once again, I've shown that I'm a thoroughbred.
"They said I had to end my career but I had more faith than them. I showed that I can still give a lot. It's a personal victory."
BEACH SOCCER
As far as international soccer is concerned, Romario disappeared off the radar back in 1998 when he was dropped from Brazil's World Cup squad on the eve of the competition because of a nagging muscular problem.
His last experience with a European club had been in 1997 when he had an unhappy spell with Valencia.
He has continued to torment defences in Brazil, however, playing first for Flamengo and then for Vasco da Gama, where he finished as top scorer in the 2001 Brazilian championship at the age of 35.
The following year, Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari defied popular pressure by refusing to pick him for the World Cup in Japan and South Korea.
Romario moved to Fluminense shortly afterwards but appeared to have missed his chance to stop while the going was still good.
In October last year, he was sacked by the club after an injury-plagued season which reached its low points when fans jeered him off the field.
Undeterred, he moved back to Vasco, the club where he began his career, at the start of this year but initially continued to make more headlines for his privileges than his football.
In February, he was allowed time off to play in the Beach Soccer World Cup. Then he was excused from playing in a important cup tie because it involved an 11-hour plane and bus journey.
Finally, he took 10 days off after falling out with former coach Dario Lourenco.
Vasco were struggling against relegation and, when he did play, Romario's static presence appeared to have become a burden to the team.
But when Renato Portaluppi became Vasco's third coach of the year in July, he announced, amid general incredulity, that his team would be "Romario, plus 10."
ROMARIO SPOONFED
An even bigger surprise was that Portaluppi's gamble paid off.
Like Romario, Portaluppi's own playing career had been punctuated by breaches of discipline, a dislike of training and rows with his coaches.
He seemed to understand that Romario was a special player who needed to be pandered to.
Romario was allowed to follow his own fitness programme, even if it meant missing team practices, and the team was built to spoonfeed him.
The goals began to flow and helped Vasco to climb away from the danger zone as they eventually finished a respectable 12th in the 22-team table.
The 1970 World Cup forward Tostao, now a widely respected newspaper columnist, said that a combination of circumstances had led to Romario's revival.
"This is a consequence of his eternal talent, of the effort he made to play and the weakness of the rival defences," he wrote.
"Romario, who was the most genial centre-forward of all time, is still playing well in the Brazilian championship because he plays for the modest team of a big club which is fighting to avoid relegation and where the coach and the president do what he needs and desires."
"It's better for Vasco to have Romario with 40 years than a 20-year-old who does nothing apart from run a lot.
"Unfortunately, Romario is no longer in condition to shine in a big team which is challenging for titles."
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