Gheorghe Hagi
, (born
February 5 1965 in
Săcele,
Constanţa), is a former
Romanian
football player and current coach.
Nicknamed "The
Maradona of the Carpathians", he is a hero in his homeland as well as in
Turkey. He has won his country's "Player of the Year" award a record six times, and was recently named
Romania's football player of the century. Alongside
Nadia Comaneci,
Ilie Năstase and
Nicolae Ceauşescu, Hagi is the best known
Romanian in the world.
He played for the
Romanian national team in three
World Cups in
1990,
1994 and
1998, as well as in three
European Football Championships in
1984,
1996 and
2000. He won a total of 125 caps for
Romania, being ranked second after
Dorinel Munteanu, and scored 35 goals, being ranked first.
In November
2003, to celebrate
UEFA's Jubilee, he was selected as the
Golden Player of Romania by the
Romanian Football Federation as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years. [
1].
In March
2004, he was named among the
top 125 living footballers by
PeléHagi was a genius player, something which can be seen to only very few other players in the world such as
Pelé,
Maradona and
Franz Beckenbauer. He had plenty of talent, which helped him to reach some performances like no other
Eastern European player. His playing style revolutionized the
football game - his speed and creativity made those famous counter-attacks possible. Only 5'8" tall and wearing size five boots, Hagi is one of the more diminutive players on the field, but in terms of his impact on the game, and the status of Romanian soccer, he is larger than life. By bringing so much respect to Romanian soccer, Hagi opened up opportunities for future players, as clubs from all over Europe come to scout talent in Romania.
He started his career playing for the youth teams of
Farul Constanţa in the '70s, before being selected by the
Romanian Football Federation to join the squad of
Luceafărul Bucharest in
1980 for two years, where he played alongside other bright young players. In
1982 he returns to
Constanţa, but it was pretty clear that his first club was now far too small for his talent. Just one year later, aged only 18, he was prepared to make the step to a top team. He was originally directed to
Universitatea Craiova, then the best team in Romania's
Liga I, but chose
Sportul Studenţesc of
Bucharest instead.
Hagi made his debut for the national side at the age of 18 in
1983 in a game against
Norway played in
Oslo. Since then and until
2000 Hagi was an indispensable part of the
Romania national football team.
In the winter of
1987 Hagi is transferred to
Steaua Bucharest, as the team prepared their
European Supercup final against
Dynamo Kiev. The original contract was for one game only, the final, however after winning the trophy, Hagi himself scoring the only goal of the final,
Steaua did not want to release him back to
Sportul Studenţesc and retained him for the next years. During his
Steaua years, (
1987 -
1990), Hagi played 97 games in
Liga I, scoring a massive 76 goals. He and the team reached the
European Cup semifinal in
1988 and the final in the following year, being champions of
Romania in
1987,
1988 and
1989 and winning the
Romania Cup in
1987,
1988 and
1989.
In
1990 Hagi played at his first
World Cup and after the competition he is signed by
Real Madrid but not only before the
La Liga side paid USD 4.3 million to
Steaua, which is even today the biggest transfer fee ever paid by a
Western European club for a
Liga I player. Hagi's two seasons with
Real Madrid were quite successful, however he would eventually end as being sold to
Brescia Calcio further a complot against him organised by other Real Madrid players.
Brescia Calcio was of course a club too small for Hagi. Even though he helped the team win the Italian
Serie B and get promotion to
Serie A but in the next season the club was relegated back to
Serie B and Hagi left the club to play for
FC Barcelona.
After two years at
FC Barcelona, Hagi signed for
Galatasaray. Ironically, Hagi did not win any trophies in
Spain, neither with
Real Madrid nor with
FC Barcelona. However, at
Galatasaray was a different story. From the very beginning Hagi was seen as
God by the Turkish supporters of the
Istanbul side. Hagi and
Fatih Terim built a team that would win the [UEFA Cup]] after defeating
Arsenal London and then the
European Supercup after a final with Hagi's former club,
Real Madrid.
At the international level Hagi continued to play for
Romania and led the team to its best performance at a
World Cup in
1994: the quaterfinals. Four years later, however, after the
1998 World Cup, Hagi decided to retire from the national team, only to change his mind after few months and play at the
2000 European Football Championship.
Hagi called it a day in
2000, when aged 35, retired from professional
football.
In
2001 Hagi is named the manager of
Romania, replacing
Ladislau Bölöni, who left the squad to coach
Sporting Lisbon. However, after failing to qualify the team to the
World Cup, Hagi is sacked. His only up during the six months when he was Romania's manager, was the win in Budapest against
Hungary, the first of this kind for
Romania.
Sacked by the Romanian Football Federation, Hagi was unemployed for a while, but in
2003 he took over as coach of Turkish first division side
Bursaspor but left that club after a disappointing start to the season. Then, in
2004 came the contract with
Galatasaray, leading the team to the
Turkish Football Cup success in
2005.
In the summer of
2005 Steaua wanted to hire him, but Hagi's requested wage could not be met by the
Romanian champions, leading Hagi to
FCU Politehnica Timişoara, from here he was sacked after few months.
It is pretty clear that Hagi the coach will never meet the performances of Hagi the player.
* with
Steaua Bucharest:
** European Supercup: 1987
** Romanian Football Championship: 1987, 1988, 1989
** Romanian Cup: 1987, 1988, 1989
* with
Galatasaray:
** UEFA Cup: 2000
** European Supercup: 2000
** Turkish Football Championship: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
** Turkish Cup: 1999, 2000, 2005 (as coach)
Gheorghe Hagi is very good friends with
Gheorghe Popescu, his former teammate from
Steaua,
FC Barcelona and
Galatasaray. Their wifes are sisters.
Hagi is the owner of the Iaki Hotel in
Mamaia, on the Romanian Black Sea coast.
Constanţa's
main stadium used to bear his name, but it was changed after Hagi signed with
FCU Politehnica Timişoara in
2005.
*
Gheorghe Hagi's official website*
Hagi's Iaki Hotel*
UEFA.com - Romania's Golden Player
