As he nears 1,000 goals, Romário could've been more

	Romário's flirtation with 1,000 career goals is a feat only Pelé has accompished. Even if the count is dubious, it's an impressive total. AP
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Nine hundred ninety-eight down. Just two to go.

If you accept Romário's own count, the 41-year-old Brazilian striker is about to hit the 1,000-goal mark. Yes, he has inflated the numbers -- his total includes goals he scored before he turned professional and those scored in exhibitions.

But two observations seem beyond dispute. One, that he has scored a whole heap of goals. Two, that he hasn't scored nearly as many important goals as he should have.

I say this because Romário is the most naturally talented center forward I've ever seen. He is soccer's answer to Muhammad Ali. Like the young Ali, early Romário was pure speed. With his little legs pumping like a cartoon character, he would pick the ball up some 40 yards out and burst past all comers on the way to the goal.

When Ali mounted a comeback, he found that when age took away the capacity to produce constant speed, he had to get by on intelligence, positioning and technique. Romário has had to do the same.

The late-model striker is a master of finding space in the penalty area. When the movement builds down the left, he lurks on the right and vice versa, spying the opposing defense for weak points.

Then he shows himself. Right time, right place, bang, goal. He is one of the all-time great finishers. What Brazilian coaching legend Mário Zagallo said of Pelé also holds true for Romário: "The calm that other players have in midfield, he had inside the penalty area."

The comparison with Pelé is interesting, the great man being the only other player famous for scoring 1,000 goals. Pelé, of course, was a more complete player than Romário.

The striking thing is that Pelé is not remembered so much for the fact that he scored so many goals. Rather, he is best recalled for the quality of the goals he scored and the importance of their context.

There is the joyful exuberance of the teenage Pelé in the 1958 World Cup final, bookended with the magisterial mature Pelé of '70, rising like a rocket to score one, passing nonchalantly to the side to set up another. In between, there's the Pelé in his prime, ripping Benfica to shreds on a night in Lisbon to decide the destiny of the Club World Cup.

Where is Romário's equivalent? Sure, he had an outstanding World Cup in '94. But by his own admission, he wasn't at his best in the final. The Champions League? A disappointing final in a Barcelona side overrun by AC Milan that same year. The Copa Libertadores? Forget about it.

The sad truth is that Romário could have achieved so much more. And for the reasons, as so often are in South American soccer, have to do with economics. Back in '94, that crucial year in his career, the Brazilian government was determined to see off hyper-inflation once and for all. It studied the example of Argentina, where the currency had been tied to the American dollar, and decided it was too inflexible.

Instead, Brazil introduced a new currency -- the Real, which was to undergo a gradual, controlled devaluation, known as the "crawling peg." When first introduced in July '94, it was worth more than the dollar, and it stayed high until suddenly collapsing some four-and-a-half years later.