Romario is Malandro

Of course I must explain what “malandro” means, since it is a local term. Malandro is a guy that is at the same time smart, bohemian and street wise. He can see (and build) good opportunities to get profit or advantage when dealing with naïve people. Romario is very malandro. He is going to Miami now.

After he reached the mega star status he decided that he would not be treated as the other players. He played for Flamengo, Vasco and Fluminense here in Rio, but nobody could demand the regular training discipline the other players had to follow. It was common for him to go for a night out with his friends the night before important matches. He was always seen with beautiful girls being married or not. He uses and creates more slang than most cariocas (born in Rio)… do you know the type?

In other words, he is cool. But he takes advantage of his status to overrule his team’s coach and board. There is the dilemma. What would you do? If you hire Romario he will score a lot and your team will be fine. At the same time you cannot impose rules to him so you will look like a fool trying to find him when all the other players are working hard training for the next match, only to discover that he was on the beach playing footvolley.

Romario is playing for Vasco nowadays. Now, listen to this: he decides the games he wants to play. Of course he claim to be injured for the games he don’t want to play (mostly in away games) and the board and the coach can do nothing about it. His team didn’t go well in Rio’s championship. So, for the Miami suckers who are about to hire him… GOOD LUCK! He will probably do the same he did in Qatar: he earned more than $1 million for playing barely 130 minutes over three months.

Renato Gaucho, his coach, said this: “He cannot be like bin Laden and disappear. We here at Vasco need him and want to talk to him before he makes any decision.”

Look, I love Romario, I love all he did for football and Brazil, I hope to be as malandro as he is today, but I would never hire him at this point. He should work as hard as his teammates and seek to bring his team to it’s goal, not the other way around. He is trashing his golden years. Romario still rules, but too much for my taste.