Romario announces retirement

Brazilian soccer star Romario holds up his shirt for the media after joining the Miami Football Club in the United Soccer League in Miami, Florida April 7, 2006. Romario announced his retirement on Monday after collecting over 1,000 scores in his career. (Photo credit: Xinhua)Photo Gallery>>RIO DE JANEIRO, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's World Cup winning striker Romario announced his retirement on Monday after collecting over 1,000 scores in his career.

"Officially I'm not playing any more. I've stopped," Romario said at a DVD launch. "My time is up. Everything has been a lot of fun."

The 42-year-old played for Brazil at the 1990 and 1994 World Cups, scoring five goals to help Brazil win the latter tournament. He capped 73 matches for his country between 1987 and 2005, scoring 56 goals.

"These last 20 years for me have been very positive," said Romario. "To be honest, I'm stopping because I don't see myself in any shape to continue playing."

Romanio started and finished his career at Vasco da Gama, and also played for Flamengo and Fluminense in Brazil, Barcelona, PSV Eindhoven and Valencia, adding to spells with Al Sadd in Qatar, Miami FC in the United States and Adelaide United in Australia.

Last May, Romario scored what he claimed was his 1,000th goal but admitted that many of these were scored in friendlies, youth and testimonial games.