BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania great Gheorghe Hagi is in his second stint as national team coach. He was appointed to replace Mircea Lucescu. died 2 weeks ago.
Hagi, 61, led Romania to the World Cup quarter-finals in 1994 and is widely regarded as Romania’s greatest ever footballer. He also played for Barcelona and Real Madrid as a creative attacking midfielder.
His first stint as Romania national team coach was in 2001, lasting three months, and ended after he failed to lead the team to the playoffs for the 2002 World Cup.
Hagi has since coached clubs in Romania and Turkey, including Galatasaray and Steaua Bucharest, but will once again be in charge of the national team, ranked 56th in the world. world cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
The Romanians lost to Türkiye in the playoffs, after which Lucescu fell ill. resigned As a coach. He passed away on April 7th at the age of 80.
“It is an honor and a great responsibility to represent Romania again as I was a player,” Hagi said in a statement released by the Romanian Football Federation.
“I am confident that we can achieve great things. I hope that my performance as a player is what I can do as a coach. I am confident that we can be the best.”
Romania last participated in the World Cup in 1998. They advanced to the last 16 of the 2024 European Championship, but lost to the Netherlands.
Hagi’s first games in charge will be friendlies against Georgia and Wales in June. Romania will be in a Nations League group with Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Poland from September.
The federation said the player was tasked with “returning the national team to the elite of world football” and had signed a contract until the 2030 World Cup.
Federation president Razvan Bourlaine said the association had made “many attempts over time” to bring Hagi back as coach.
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