Instead, the pair fell out and spent the following six months sniping at each other through the media.

Now two of Brazil's most gifted and temperamental players have been reunited at Fluminense in what appears to be a huge gamble by a club that narrowly avoided relegation last year.

The players, who will have a combined age of 70 by the end of the month, are older, balder, greyer and claim to be wiser.

But it is still hard to avoid the feeling that coach Valdir Espinosa has been handed a time bomb by the club directors who made the signing.

The 34-year-old Romario, who led Brazil to their fourth World Cup win in 1994, has delighted and exasperated his followers in equal measure with his goal-scoring feats, his dislike for training and his enjoyment of the good life.

The man who once insisted he plays better after a good night on the town has been granted special privileges at Fluminense. He is allowed to travel to away games on his own, never has to train the day after a match and has his own physiotherapist.

Edmundo, at least in his heyday, had explosive pace and an explosive temperament to go with it.

BEER-DRINKING CHIMP

His past misdemeanours include receiving seven red cards in a year, racially insulting a lineman, pushing his hand in a referee's face and feeding beer to a chimpanzee during a children's party.

Dealing with either of the players on their own is usually more than any single club can handle.

Yet Fluminense are the third club -- all based in Rio de Janeiro -- who have attempted to bring the pair together.

Flamengo were the first to try in 1995 but repeated injuries to Edmundo followed by Romario's decision to join Spanish club Valencia prevented the fireworks from igniting.

At that time, the pair, who share their love of Rio's beach culture and were regular partners at foot-volleyball, were chums.

But they fell out when Romario opened his Cafe do Gol bar in 1998.

Romario decided to decorate the doors in the men's toilets with caricatures -- one of which pictured Edmundo sitting on a deflated ball. Another depicted a girlfriend and model from whom he had just separated.

Romario insisted it was a joke. Edmundo was not amused.

At the time, Edmundo was the star of the show at Vasco da Gama. But when the club signed Romario in late 1999, it seemed they were asking for trouble.

The pair managed to keep their egos under control for the Club World Championship in 2000, helping Vasco to beat European champions Manchester United on the way to reaching the final, but in the less demanding atmosphere of the subsequent Carioca championship, the trouble began.

COURT JESTER

First, Edmundo was stripped of the captaincy before a game and it was handed to the newly-arrived Romario. The Animal stormed out of the dressing-room and went home.

Next came another infamous incident when both players stepped up to take a penalty, Romario was given the nod -- and missed.

"The King decided his Prince should take it," said Edmundo at halftime, referring to club president Eurico Miranda and Romario respectively.

After scoring in Vasco's next match, Romario sniped back: "Now, everyone in the kingdom is happy -- the King, the Prince and the court jester."

The partnership was finally put out of its misery when Edmundo fell out with the directors over his wages and left for Santos.

Both players and coach Espinosa insist the hatchet has since been buried and are optimistic they can lead Fluminense to great things.

"We've fulfilled our dream of putting together a great team, now we have to take the biggest step, which is to win matches and collect titles," said Espinosa. "We've got a lot of work to do."

Romario predicted the right kind of fireworks.

"I can assure you that things will happen -- but they will be positive things," he said. "We're all a bit older, especially me. We're not going to allow any vanity to unsettle the squad."