Every team in the world has one rule: on match day, the squad goes together. Romário never understood it.
In his piece “I Am Romário”, published in The Players’ Tribune, the 1994 world champion tells it in the first person. Sometimes he stayed home, away from the rest of the team. And he delivers the line that became famous: if he woke up in the mood, he had sex with his wife and then went to the match. On the field, he says, he felt calmer and lighter.
He doesn’t offer it as advice. He presents it as who he is: “You have to do what works for you”.
And there’s a scene that captures him perfectly. Before a match against Fluminense, he had decided not to play. While his team was in camp 24 hours before the match, he spent the day at the beach. Then he changed his mind. He arrived at the Maracanã when the others had already warmed up, walked into the locker room shaking sand off himself, and went out onto the pitch.
That was Romário. A guy who fit no manual, but who, when he stepped into the box, did what almost nobody can.
Coaches dream of players who obey. The stands remember those who arrive with sand in their shoes and decide the match.