There is something about Brazil and football. As I might have told earlier when talking about Kaka’s recent accolade, they do not play the game, the dance. Their way of the game is more a way of life. Football is a region in Brazil, the players are gods. Success is worshiped and failure is not tolerated. They play football for fun and festivity. When I say they do not tolerate defeat, it does not imply that they riot. It is just the fact that the persist till they win.
Romario is one of the most loved Brazilian soccer players of all time. He was FIFA player of the year in 1994, instrumental in winning the world cup 94 for Brazil. Yet he has had to face both the wonderful and the horrible. Now he has been implicated in a doping case. It is hard to even believe that it would be true. You know that a player of his class need not dope even at the age that he is presently.
Now Romario has come out to say that the positive drug test was because of a hair re-growing medicine that he has been taking. It is quite funny when you listen to him put it into words. He told the media that he was getting old and was loosing hair. To make sure his receding hairline does not see him end up like Fabien Barthez, he has been using the medicine.
Romario sounded both amused and pretty confident that he was clean. But he wasted no time in saying that if he knew that the substance was banned, then he would never have taken it. Surely, international bodies like FIFA have to educate players much better, than just giving a huge list of what is in and what is not. Even WADA must work in this regard. Now a substance that helps hair grow back is surely no help for playing on the ground. Unless FIFA believe that better hairline helps Romario cushion the headers better into the back of the net! I mean, with FIFA you never know.
