“You’re not Romário”: The similarities and differences between the exits of two recently-crowned FC Barcelona World Cup winners

“You’re not Romário,” Ferran Torres was routinely told on Barça Catalan Twitter, as the saga of his eventual transfer to Paris Saint-Germain unfolded taking various twists and turns.

What was meant by that exactly? 

Basically that despite scoring Spain’s winning goal against Argentina in the World Cup final on July 19, the now departed number 7 isn’t, or wasn’t, that guy on the same footing as O Baixinho, who was afforded the liberty of doing what he wanted and holding the club to a sort of emotional ransom. 

That other than them both being strikers who left the club shortly after clinching the FIFA showpiece tournament, the similarities between the Valencia and Rio de Janeiro natives end there.

News of PSG’s interest in Ferran broke while the World Cup was still underway. As ‘The Shark’ then basked in his glory with a number of American television appearances - both flirting with the Parisians and having his Jerry Maguire “Show me the Money”, or rather “Show me the Love”, moment - many Culers demanded a quick sale and then saying “Bon vent i barca nova”.

“Good wind and a new boat,” that means in Catalan. Or perhaps more fittingly given the change of scenery, “Bon voyage”.

Unlike Romário, who Cruyff brought to Camp Nou as the last piece of the puzzle in the Dream Team - the fourth of three allowed foreigners to keep Hristo Stoichkov, Ronald Koeman and Michael Laudrup on their toes - while finally playing an out-and-out striker, Ferran was never the first choice front man.

That billing went to Robert Lewandowski instead, and there have also been reports of Ferran feeling put out by the pursuit of Julian Alvarez when the Pole left, who would therefore block his rise to the top.

 There were tales of not being appreciated too. But they accompanied other claims Sporting Director Hansi Flick and Sporting Director Deco couldn’t understand Ferran’s discontent, when he played a second fiddle role to Mikel Oyarzabal in the national team as well.

Ferran might be accused of main character syndrome, with the fame of his Andres Iniesta-esque in 2010 strike bringing La Roja its second World Cup title perhaps giving him ideas above his station. If that’s so, it certainly hasn’t been helped by his mentioned, indulgent public appearances in the United States which also included throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium.

Furthermore, that goal - important as it might have been - was his only one on North American soil. In those same climes back in ‘94, though, Romário was the Golden Ball winner for being the best player and only one strike off equalling his club teammate Hristo Stoichkov and Oleg Solenko for the Golden Boot as the Seleção landed the tetra.

It must be noted that Ferran was on schedule to report for preseason in Catalonia on August 12, like the bulk of his fellow international and now former club teammates. Yet he was given permission to stay away from training, as the final touches to his €50 million reuniting with Luis Enrique at the Parc des Princes was being finalised.

Romário on the other hand - it was his lofty status both in the Blaugrana and amarleinha shirts which meant he could take liberties, and be cut some slack for basically turning up when he wanted for 1994/1995 preparations after heading south to Rio to celebrate his heroics and country’s conquest.

This was the man that netted 32 goals in his first season at the Camp Nou after joining from PSV Eindhoven - 30 of those coming in 33 La Liga outings as part of the last of The Dream Team’s four consecutive domestic crown wins.

The carefree genius that warned Vice President Joan Gaspart “you’re going to enjoy yourself today” ahead of El Clasico, before netting a hat trick in a 5-0 win over Real Madrid. A gift during The Three Kings’ (Los Reyes) period more commonly celebrated than Christmas in Spain, where he scored one of the fixture’s most iconic goals made possible by a mindbending cola de vaca (cow tail) turn on Rafael Alkorta to open the scoring inside 25 minutes.

Romário gave the club fair warning that he might not meet their preseason deadline too. The story goes that while waiting to take on Italy in the Pasadena Rose Bowl final, Cruyff’s right hand man and assistant coach Tonny Bruins reminded him to report for duty on August 1.

“If I’m the world's number one and have just won the world cup, I'll show up when I want,” Romário is said to have responded.

Perhaps Cruyff, who was usually strict with his players, needed to shoulder the blame in creating a monster here. “Give me 30 goals and I’ll make you the best player in the world,” he told Romário. He did that, and was now worthy of such a title at that particular moment in football history. 

Cruyff also turned a blind eye to him staying out in Barcelona nightclubs until 8AM, and then reporting for training withered and sneaking off for a nap in the shade under a tree. “As long as he scores goals it doesn’t matter,” Cruyff said.

In a more extreme case than Ferran’s, Romário began to develop a God complex. "With the fourth World Cup, I took his place," he told UOL back home in an interview, in reference to the recently-passed Ayrton Senna, who was the biggest Brazilian idol since Pelé as a three-time F1 world champion. 

"There was a massification of me as king," Romário added, amid a song “Romário é rei,” or Romário is king” being recorded by the band Bel.

Pelé was known as O Rei too, or The King, and that’s the kind of Brazilian Mount Rushmore Romário believed he’d chiseled his face into.

He wanted more time off too, at least “50 days’ holiday like my teammates who didn’t go to the World Cup,” he demanded, which would have roughly taken him to September 5 missing Barca’s season opener against Sporting Gijon. 

“I have the money to pay any fine” and “my lateness isn’t a lack of respect” he protested when presenting his argument for this.

As is often the case with these sorts of novelas, the will he, won’t he dominated the front pages of the Catalan press. “Romário will take five days more” ran one headline, before the player said himself that he wouldn’t “embark until at least the 20th, and if I want to, later”.

While Cruyff previously said “I imagine one day he’ll show up” and refused to critcise his striker in public, his patience was wearing thin.

A news segment cross-edited with scenes of a teetotal Romário playing samba or pagode drums, and speaking from the filming of a beer commercial with bikini-clad women on the beach in Rio, was spliced with the Dutchman saying: “If Romário wants to stay in Brazil that’s OK with me. He just has to pay off his contract, and after doing so he is free to go. I guess Romário’s worth around $11 million. He doesn’t have to shop up in Barcelona. Just send the cheque.

“If he was relaxing I could understand a bit. But I reckon he’s playing football on the beach and hanging out at discos at night. If he keeps doing that, he’ll need more time to recover,” Koeman chimed in with, hinting at disapproval in the changing room where it is said Romario was “admired but never loved”.

Yet Romário insisted that his stay was a for a good cause rather than mucking about and living the good life. “People don’t know my real reason for staying here. I’m setting up a foundation, which is something for educating the poor who are really badly off here in Rio, and that’s the reason for my staying,” he protested. 

“Maybe I’ve stayed too long, and if the directors or trainers at Barcelona decide so, I’ll pay the fine and I’ll accept what they decide without question. I don’t want to create a problem for anyone.

“For sure I’m happy with Barcelona, and Barcelona should be happy with having a world champion and the best player at the World Cup,” he added.

In any event, the 20th then became the 22nd, and there was understandably a media frenzy when Romário touched down in El Prat on the 23rd in the Ciutat Comtal from the Cidade Maravilhosa.

Romário seemed remorseful, his tone shifting from “I’ll do what I want” to “I’ll do what they want me to” now that the party had ended. With Gaspart acting as a mediator, Cruyff didn’t want to accept Romário’s apology and hit him with a 10 million peseta fine (around €131,000 in today’s money) plus an order to report for training at 8AM sharp - usually the time he was leaving the nightclubs - on the 25th.

Rather than training with the rest of the first team group, Romário was caught on camera running Collserola hills near Mount Tibidabo with an assistant.

As anyone who has visited the turn of 19th century theme park - built, like Barça in 1899 - will tell you, and has probably taken a Cuca de Llum Funicular to rise 512 meters to reach, that’s an ardent task at the best of times. Especially for someone as out of shape as Romário was, who famously hated running and training in general.

The plan was for Romário not to be involved in any of the preseason games meaning he sat out a 4-1 loss to Valencia in the Joan Gamper Trophy match and both legs of the Spanish Super Cup against Real Zaragoza which the Catalans won 6-5 overall.

Red cards for goalkeeper Julen Lopetegui and Hristo Stoichkov in the dying minutes of the 4-5 loss in the second leg meant that the Bulgarian opened up a space for Romário’s return.

“From the mountain to the pitch,” Stoichkov said, in reference to Romário’s Tibadbo exile and sudden reintroduction for the mentioned 2-1 away loss to Luis Enrique’s first club Sporting Gijon, where this time it was Pep Guardiola’s turn for a late dismissal.

Romário was clearly off the pace, while he received a “cool” reception from his teammates. “I forgave him, but I’m not sure if others did,” Stoitchkov recalled.

The start of the 1994/1995 season was bad all round. Barça felt the absence of a Laudrup basically pushed out to Real Madrid because of the reshuffling Cruyff did to the attack the term before to get the best out of the Brazilian. He was no longer firing on all cylinders, though, amid new recruit Gheorghe Hagi having trouble bedding in.

After two matches, Romário was dropped for three as Cruyff reportedly said he couldn’t go out at night. “Leave me alone, you’re not my father,” and “I’ve won the World Cup and you haven’t,” are two things Romário is meant to have said fighting back. Simultaneously, “Now I feel the pressure of the World Cup” was an accurately reported statement.

A brace against Atletico Madrid in a 4-3 home win, plus his goal-and-assist part in a 4-0 drubbing of Manchester United - his last great performance in Blaugrana - were glimpses of his previous best.

Halfway through the campaign, though, “nine goals less” was the phrase that hounded Romário in comparison to his haul at that point in 1994/1995 season, for his relatively poor seven tally (four in the league and three in Europe). 

After this time taking an authorised trip home for the Christmas break and coming back to Catalonia at the agreed moment, he resurfaced with five stitches on his face saying he wanted to leave the club.

If the previous occasion the world’s biggest derby was played at this point of the year was Romário’s gift to Culers during Los Reyes, a loss by the same 5-0 scoreline 12 months previously in the Bernabeu at the turn of 1995 made the festive period a living nightmare.

His 45 minutes off the bench were his last in Blaugrana after Flamengo presented a bid, which didn’t come as a surprise to Stoichkov. “After spending everyday with him, with his family, I understood he was going to go back to Brazil,” he said.

In that self-coronating UOL interview too, Romário also remarked that he wanted to live in his homeland within two years and retire.

“He couldn’t give us anymore, so he asked to leave,” Cruyff explained in a press conference. Though there were a mixture of factors at play, such as the mentioned departure of Michael Laudrup, who tormented his old club in the Clasico with a midfield masterclass, Romário’s sale is believed to have played a huge part in the collapse of the Dream Team.

That Spanish Super Cup was their only silverware in 1994/1995, while not clinching any at all the following season resulted in Cruyff leaving his post after eight in charge while falling out with president Josep Lluís Núñez.

Torres’ exit is unlikely to have the same impact on known Cruyffista Hansi Flick’s side falling from its domestic dominance grace. Considering back-to-back La Liga titles while it is Madrid this time in a two year drought, his relationship with Cruyff adorer Joan Laporta has never been better.

But let’s hope it doesn’t prove an omen, repeating itself by ushering in the same doom that followed a past sitting of a striker who lasted little to no time at FC Barcelona upon becoming a World Cup hero.