Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Brazil have never won the World Cup when they hosted
AN amusing story is when Johann Cruyff kept a promise to his Barcelona striker Romario.
The Dutch legend said: “One time, Romario asked me if he could miss two days of training to return to Brazil for the carnival in Rio de Janeiro.
“I replied: ‘If you make two goals tomorrow, I’ll give you two extra days’ rest compared to the other players’.
“The next day, Romario scored his second goal 20 minutes into the game and immediately gestured to me asking to leave.
“He told me: ‘Coach, my plane leaves in an hour’. I had no choice but to let Romario leave for fulfilling his promise.”
Staying on the Brazilian theme, Birkhill resident Brian Summer pointed out an interesting statistic about the South American maestros.
Said Brian: “Fivetimes World Cup winners Brazil have never won the tournament when they hosted the event.
“Their successes came in 1958 (Sweden), 1962
(Chile), 1970 (Mexico), 1994 (USA) and 2092 (Japan).
“Brazil hosted the finals in 1950 (losing 2-1 to Uruguay in the final) and 2014 (beaten 7-1 in semi-final by Germany).”