A ‘sex-obsessed’ football god has been bonking students nearly 40 years younger than him after three divorces and six kids, so he’s sure to be celebrating in style as he marks his 60th birthday
Brazil icon Romario was legendary for his strike rate in front of goal, but also off the pitch as well.
The PSV and Barcelona icon was as deadly a finisher as the sport has ever seen during his incredible career that spanned over three decades and saw him lift the World Cup in 1994, before he made the staggering decision at 58 to come out of retirement to play in the same team as his son Romarinho in the lower reaches of Brazilian football in 2024.
The man Johan Cruyff branded a “genius of the goal area”, who celebrates his 60th birthday today (January 29), has lived an incredible life from banging in goals on the international and club scene, where he played most of his football in his native Brazil, before he even became a politician. And given his love life, it’s even easier to see why he returned to Brazil so early in his career.
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His former team-mate at the Camp Nou, Hristo Stoichkov, once told FourFourTwo: “Romario was only interested in two things: football and f******. Romario’s lifestyle, his constant coming and going caused problems with his wife.”
The man himself made no bones about his active love life. Writing for The Players’ Tribune last year, he explained: “Sex, for me, has always been f****** good.
“Sometimes on match day I would stay at home, away from the rest of the team. If I’d wake up horny, I’d have sex with my wife and then go to the game. On the pitch, it made me feel calmer and lighter.”
Romario split with his first wife Monica Santoro in 1995 after admitting countless affairs, with his relentless romping also seeing his Barca career derail.
Naturally, it didn’t take him long to find second wife Danielle Favatto, who he stayed married to for five years – although he still didn’t remain loyal, having a lovechild with an actress while they were together.
His old Brazil colleague Ronaldo told Sport in 2011: “In 1997, during Copa America, Romario convinced me to escape with him from the hotel.
“Romario was the first to climb over the wall and soon after I came in. Meanwhile, on the other side of the street, there was a taxi waiting for us and we spent our nights in good company.
“It was all handled very intricately, but I cannot give any more details.”
He then spent a decade with third wife, model Isabelle Bittencourt, before their 2014 split. Together they had his sixth child.
Romario was next linked to Cibelle Ribeiro, who had been a contender for Miss Bumbum Brazil 2012.
The man who claims to have scored more than 1,000 goals including friendlies, youth games, and unofficial matches boasted about his womanising ways, where he revealed he managed to sleep with three different woman in the same day.
He said: “I’m 100 percent unfaithful, I define myself as an excellent womaniser and in the prime of my promiscuity I managed to sleep with three different women in the same day.”
Since then, he’s been romantically linked to Dixie Pratt, who was 29 years his junior and a teenager at the time, Ana Karoline Nazario, a student who was 31 years younger than him, and then the 25-years younger Marcelle Ceolin.
The Rio-born icon split with Ciolin in August 2022 and was soon seen with 34-year-old event promoter Maria Geusiane Santos, though their relationship kept a sensibly low profile and seemed to fizzle out.
It wasn’t long until Romario was at it again as he started dating 22-year-old Alicya Gomes in September 2024, when he was 58. Just the 36-year age gap then.
The nutrition student privatised her Instagram where she had 5,000 followers, fuelling speculation the pair had decided to try to keep their relationship out of the public eye.
However, it appears their relationship came to an end in November when the pair unfollowed each other on social media.
But Brazilian media are already linking the retired footballer-turned-politician to another woman, saying he was spotted at a record launch in Rio de Janeiro with a mystery blonde and they were seen “whispering in each other’s ears in a secluded corner”.
Even though his rampant ways haven’t found him a secure relationship, Romario has continued to advise others to follow the same policy.
He was branded “sex-mad” after revealing he had recommended “lots of sex” to Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus.
Ahead of the 2018 World Cup, he told the Gunners forward: “Have enough sex is one piece of advice – as is making the most you can of your days off. And, of course, you must concentrate on match days and during the games.”