In the 1999 summer, after helping Mallorca win the domestic Supercup and reach the final of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (already accompanied in the team by former Lanús teammates Ariel Ibagaza and Gustavo Siviero),[4] 30-year-old Roa retired from football in order to take a religious retreat. After a year of charitable and religious work spent as a member of his church, his convictions led to his refusal to discuss a new contract with his team because he believed the world was going to end in the near future.[5][6]
Less than one year later, Roa nicknamed the Lechuga[1] returned to Mallorca, forced to play out the remaining two years of his contract. Never being able to reproduce his previous form, he was relegated to the bench by compatriot Leo Franco.
^Uribe Muñoz, Juan (13 October 2016). "El héroe mundialista que llegó al Rebaño" [The World Cup hero that made it to the Herd] (in Spanish). Rojo y Blanco. Retrieved 16 December 2016.