adminRomania have not qualified for a World Cup since 1998 and have reached the European Championships only twice since 2000, failing to get past the group stage on both occasions. They begin their attempt to qualify for Euro 2024 with matches against Andorra and Belarus this month.
Gheorghe Hagi, who illuminated Romania’s run to the World Cup quarter-finals of 1994 and is widely regarded as their best player of all time, is on a mission to transform their fortunes.
“Hagi for president” was chanted by hundreds of thousands back home as Romania beat Colombia, hosts USA and Argentina on their way to the World Cup quarter-finals in 1994. Penalty defeat by Sweden followed, but the wave of unprecedented love towards the nation’s football hero lost little momentum.
Two years later, despite Hagi not running in Romania’s 1996 presidential elections, people still voted for him. They wrote his name out by hand, with the midfielder getting a few thousand votes, more than some of the official candidates.
Over a 29-year professional career that ended at Galatasaray in 2001, Hagi played for Real Madrid and Barcelona and appeared 124 times for his country, scoring a joint record 35 goals. They called him the ‘Maradona of the Carpathians’.
He placed fourth for the Ballon d’Or in 1994 and Pele included him in a 125-strong list of the world’s best living players in 2004.
Hagi turned to management months after his retirement from professional football. His first job? The Romania national team.
For the ‘King’, as he is known in Romania, it was a rough start. His side lost to Slovenia in the World Cup qualification play-offs and missed out on a place at the tournament for the first time since 1986.
When he was playing, Hagi could decide everything on his own through an unexpected shot, a mazy dribble or a keyhole assist.
In management, things seemed more difficult for him. Things did not work out so brilliantly at the start – but the picture is different now.
Now 58, he is the owner and head coach of Farul Constanta, Romania’s current top-flight leaders. After jobs at Galatasaray, Bursaspor and Steaua Bucharest, in 2009 he returned to his hometown of Constanta on the Black Sea coast with a bold ambition.
He started an academy from scratch, investing part of his own fortune and borrowing the rest to support the project. More than £10 million was injected to fuel his dream: creating a generation that would get Romania in the fight to win the World Cup.
When he started the academy, more than 200 kids from all around the country joined. About 100 staff were hired.
The academy took over a third-tier club, Viitorul Constanta, and quickly won consecutive promotions to the top-flight. In 2017 the almost unthinkable happened – Hagi’s team won the Romanian title, with cup success following two years later. In 2021 the club merged with the well-supported Farul Constanta, where Hagi’s own journey in football began when he was 10 years old.
A big part of the money Hagi earned as a player is now invested in his club. Farul are one of the youngest teams in Europe, with the club’s philosophy centred around youth development. Recently, Hagi offered a 14-year-old his top-flight debut.
Over the years, teenagers who have impressed have moved abroad, joining Ajax, Fiorentina, Brighton, and Rangers. Almost half of the most recent Romania squad have a background in Hagi’s team, while the percentages in the youth national sides are even more impressive.
One of those who rose through the ranks at the academy is Hagi’s son, Ianis.
The 24-year-old is now at Rangers, after playing for Fiorentina and Genk.
Hagi’s academy aims to promote at least two players to the first team each season. The manager doesn’t care about the age of those he trains.
The academy lies just outside Constanta, a city of about 300 000 people situated on the Black Sea coast. Before Hagi’s project came to this location it was a field where local farmers used to graze their cows and sheep.
Hagi was promised a new stadium would be built in Constanta, able to hold 20 000 – four times the capacity of the ground the team currently occupy at his academy. The Romanian government will invest almost £100 million into the new project, which should be ready by 2025. – BBC Sport.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter