Bebeto

José Roberto Gama de Oliveira, known as Bebeto, (born February 16, 1964 in Salvador, Brazil) is a former football forward, a World Champion for Brazil in the 1994 World Cup.

Career

Bebeto started his career in 1983 with Vitória and would go on to play for Flamengo, Vasco da Gama, and Botafogo in Brazil, Deportivo La Coruña and Sevilla in Spain, Toros Neza in Mexico, Kashima Antlers in Japan, and Al Ittihad in Saudi Arabia, finally retiring in 2002.

For Brazil, Bebeto scored 42 goals in 76 caps after making his debut in 1985. He played in three World Cups: 1990, 1994, and 1998. In 1994, he was one of the best players of the tournament, scoring three goals for the eventual champions, and then repeated the feat four years later as Brazil finished second.

Bebeto became a household name for his goal celebration in the 1994 World Cup. His wife had delivered their third child just days before a quarterfinal match against Holland. After the striker pumped the go-ahead goal into the back of the net Bebeto ran to the sideline, brought his arms together and began rocking an imaginary baby. Teammates Romário and Mazinho quickly joined in.

In 1993-94 Deportivo had the chance to win the their first ever La Liga title by beating Valencia in the last match of the season. In a very evenly matched contest Depor had a golden opportunity to seal the victory and thus the league title. They were given a penalty kick just minutes from the end. The official penalty taker all season had been Bebeto (after Donato, who wasn't in the field), who this time, refused to take the penalty. Eventually, Miroslav Đukić took the penalty and failed, effectively handing Barcelona the title.

Honours

Career statistics

|- |1983||rowspan="6"|Flamengo||rowspan="6"|Série A||3||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1984||11||5|||||||||||||||| |- |1985||22||9|||||||||||||||| |- |1986||17||5|||||||||||||||| |- |1987||14||6|||||||||||||||| |- |1988||14||9|||||||||||||||| |- |1989||rowspan="4"|Vasco da Gama||rowspan="4"|Série A||12||6|||||||||||||||| |- |1990||8||1|||||||||||||||| |- |1991||8||3|||||||||||||||| |- |1992||25||18|||||||||||||||| |- |1992-93||rowspan="4"|Deportivo La Coruña||rowspan="4"|La Liga||37||29|||||||||||||||| |- |1993-94||34||16|||||||||||||||| |- |1994-95||26||16|||||||||||||||| |- |1995-96||34||25|||||||||||||||| |- |1996||Flamengo||Série A||15||7|||||||||||||||| |- |1996-97||Sevilla||La Liga||5||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1997||Vitória||Série A||8||7|||||||||||||||| |- |1998||Botafogo||Série A||17||9|||||||||||||||| |- |1998-99||Toros Neza||Primera División||8||2|||||||||||||||| |- |2000||Kashima Antlers||J. League Division 1||8||1|||||||||||||||| |- |2000||Vitória||Série A||3||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2001||rowspan="2"|Vasco da Gama||rowspan="2"|Série A||8||2|||||||||||||||| |- |2002||0||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2002-03||Al-Ittihad||Premier League||5||1||||||||||||||||185||87||||||||||||||||136||86||||||||||||||||8||2||||||||||||||||8||1||||||||||||||||5||1||||||||||||||||342||177|||||||||||||||| |}