Former Adelaide United coach John Kosmina has hit out at Brazil legend Romario over his performances during his time in Australia in a book commemorating the club's first 10 years.
In an extract of 'A Decade United' published by The New Daily, Kosmina pulled no punches - slamming the signing of the then 40-year-old, who played just four A-League games for one goal in 2006.
Kosmina also criticised the club's hierarchy at the time, claiming chairman Dario Fontanarosa, board member Mel Patzwald and Michael Petrillo - the current CEO - were all Romario's cheerleaders.
"In one of the games, I think against the New Zealand side, Romario was playing like a busted a***," the extract from Kosmina read in the book collated by journalist Loukas Founten.
"He couldn't move so I hooked him with about half an hour to go and when he came off he got the s**** and walked straight off the pitch, grabbed his bag and left. He didn’t even have a shower.
"After that, I had to go to a meeting with Dario Fontanarosa. Michael Petrillo and Mel Patzwald were also there.
"I knew what it was all about. They told me they'd invested too much in Romario and he had to play. I told them I didn't care if he's got the s**** because he was killing the team."
"I remember Dario saying, 'We don’t care about the three points, we need him to play,' and I looked at him and said, 'Are you f****** kidding?'
"They were all nice blokes but with Romario those guys were like three groupies. I was embarrassed the way they were fussing over him; it was almost sad and belittling."
Romario's lone goal in an Adelaide shirt was still not enough to earn him praise from the disillusioned Kosmina - who also claimed the Brazilian's signing cost them the title that season, won by Melbourne Victory.
"Romario scored his goal, although Jason Spagnuolo did most of the work and basically put it in the net for him, but true to form, Romario got a toe on it to push it over the line and he achieved his ambition to score in Australia," Kosmina wrote.
"I didn't want him to finish the game, even though we were in a comfortable position, and he knew it when I took him off.
"I told him that it was nice for him to have 10 minutes on the sidelines where he could stand and salute the crowd on his own without the rest of his team-mates.
"Before Romario turned up, we were playing well enough to have gone on and probably won the competition."
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