“Romário reveals the same political opportunism that he showed as a footballer,” Kfouri said.

Recently, Romário also had a falling out with his own party, the Brazilian Socialists, which led him to resign a position on the Brazilian sports and tourism commission.

Still, Romário’s advocacy is not uncommon for a Brazilian celebrity. Tiririca, a former professional clown, was elected to public office in 2010, and there has been a procession of athletes through the years. Pelé was once the minister of sport. Bebeto was elected to the legislative assembly. And Socrates, a famous midfielder of the 1970s and ’80s, was integral to the opposition against the military government that ruled until 1985.

Paulo Sotero, the director of the Brazil Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, called Socrates the obvious forerunner.

“Socrates became emblematic of the major Brazilian player that used his position to protest against the dictatorship,” Sotero said. “But Romário is surprising in certain ways. The thinking in Brazil has always been that he is a good soccer player because he can’t make any sense. But he has been making a lot of sense.”

That is perhaps the oddest aspect of Romário’s blistering campaign against the World Cup. During the height of his playing career, it would have been absurd to predict that the man who variously labeled Pelé an “imbecile” and “mentally retarded” would become a dogged populist politician. And that the man who notoriously brawled with raucous fans would someday become a staunch defender of the proletariat.

Perspective, such as it was, arrived eight years ago. That was when Romário’s daughter, Ivy, was born with Down syndrome and, he said, he was awakened to the plight of the disabled. Asked to name his proudest moment, he did not bring up his domination at the 1994 World Cup or the day he scored his 1,000th career goal while playing for Vasco da Gama (a total that admittedly took some creative math because it included goals scored in youth and friendly matches, which are not counted by FIFA). Rather, Romário hesitated and leaned forward. “One of my best days was in the first six months of my term,” he said. “I was able to get a law that was sanctioned by the president that incentivized and helps those who are handicapped. It used to be that those who were handicapped did not want to work because they might lose their government money. Now, they can go find work.”