In 1992, during Romário's successful season at PSV Eindhoven, he was called to the national team for a friendly match against Germany at 12/16/1992 in Porto Alegre - Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira left Romário as a reserve, after which he expressed his dissatisfaction, saying he would not have come over from Netherlands if he had known he was not going to play. These declarations caused Parreira to ban Romário from the Brazilian team.
Brazil played the first seven matches of the 1994 World Cup qualification without Romário, and suffered their first loss ever in World Cup qualifying against Bolivia. Journalists and fans called for his return to the team. Brazil had to beat Uruguay at the Maracanã Stadium to finish first of their group. Before the match against Uruguay, Parreira gave up and called Romário. Brazil won 2-0, with Romário scoring both goals, and qualified to the World Cup.
At the World Cup finals, he partnered with Bebeto in the attack to lead his country to a record fourth World Cup title. He scored five goals in the tournament: one in each of the three first round matches, against Russia, Cameroon, and Sweden; one against the Netherlands in quarterfinals; and the game-winning header against Sweden in the semifinals. He also assisted Bebeto in the only goal of the match against the United States in the round of 16. He was voted the most outstanding player of the tournament.
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