Respect Romario

February 13th, 2006 | by: Euler Costa | View Comments

Afshin Afshar seems to consider people with 40 years old like some mummies or incapacitated persons. As I already wrote in Brazil’s blog: everyday that goes by I believe age should not be considered as handicap anymore.

If we look at football’s recent history we’ll see that some of the greatest world class players are still playing even after what Afshin called “in their prime”. Zinedine Zidane is 33 years old and he’ll be playing for France. Lilian Thuram is also 33 and will be playing too. Ali Daei, Iranian captain this year, is going to be 36 when the World Cup begins. Well, need I to say more?

I can assemble a short list of ‘over 30 list’ just to prove my point. Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar is playing at age 35. Luiz Figo will be 33. Cafu will be 35.

Perspolis should be thanking the football Gods if Romario is really going to play for them. I don’t see what he would gain doing so, since he is already rich as hell. I really hope that this is nothing but a rumor. Brazil is one of the main football talent exporters of the world but I would not like to see him being blamed for not performing miracles, as it happened before.

I can respect Afshar’s opinion, but I don’t think he respected Romario’s achievements or his career. Humor is a gift, but it can really be harmful when it comes to disrespect.