Gheorghe Hagi

Gheorghe Hagi (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈɡe̯orɡe ˈhad​͡ʒi]; born February 5, 1965 in Săcele), is a former Romanian football player, born in an Aromanian family. He was famous for his passing, close control, long shots and was regarded as one of the best attacking midfielders in Europe during the 1980s and 1990s.

Nicknamed “The Maradona of the Carpathians”, he is considered a hero in his homeland as well as in Turkey. He has won his country’s “Player of the Year” award six times, and is regarded as one of the best football players of the twentieth century.

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. Hagi is one of the few footballers to have played for both the Spanish rival clubs Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. In a 2006 poll conducted by Romanian Television to identify the “greatest Romanians of all time”, Hagi came in 15th.

Club career

He started his career playing for the youth teams of Farul Constanţa in the 1970s, before being selected by the Romanian Football Federation to join the squad of Luceafărul Bucureşti in 1980 for two years. In 1982 he returned to Constanţa, but one year later, aged 18, he was prepared to make the step to a top team. He was originally directed to Universitatea Craiova, but chose Sportul Studenţesc of Bucharest instead.

In the winter of 1987 Hagi was transferred to Romanian giants Steaua Bucureşti as the team prepared for their European Super Cup final against FC Dynamo Kyiv. The original contract was for one game only, the final. However after winning the trophy, where Hagi scored the only goal of the game, Steaua did not want to release him back to Sportul Studenţesc and retained him. During his Steaua years (1987–1990), Hagi played 97 Liga I games, scoring 76 goals. He and the team reached the European Cup semifinal in 1988 and the final in the following year. Hagi and Steaua were the champions of Romania in 1987, 1988 and 1989 and as well as winning the Romania Cup in 1987, 1988 and 1989.

After the 1990 World Cup, he was signed by Real Madrid. The La Liga side paid $4.3 million to Steaua Bucureşti for him. Hagi played two seasons with Real Madrid and then was sold to Brescia Calcio.

Hagi helped Brescia Calcio win the Italian Serie B and get promoted to Serie A, but in the next season the club was relegated back to Serie B. After performing memorably during the 1994 World Cup, Hagi was signed by FC Barcelona.

After two years at FC Barcelona, Hagi signed for Galatasaray S.K.. At Galatasaray, he was both successful and highly popular among the Turkish supporters. Hagi and manager Fatih Terim built a team that would win four league titles. Over the years, Galatasaray, led by Hagi, managed to win the UEFA Cup after defeating Arsenal in the finals. This was followed by the capture of the European Super Cup with a historic win against Hagi’s former club Real Madrid.Both feats were firsts, and remain unmatched in Turkish soccer history. The mass hysteria caused by these wins in Istanbul raised Hagi’s popularity even further with the fans and made French ex-international Luis Fernández to say that “Hagi is like wine, the older it gets, the better it is”. In 2000, at the age of 35, Hagi had the best days of his career, winning every possible trophy with Galatasaray. When he retired in 2001, he remained one of the most beloved players in the Turkish and Romanian championships.

National team

Hagi made his debut for the Romania national team at the age of 18 in 1983 in a game against Norway played in Oslo. He was part of the Romanian team until 2000.

Hagi led the Romanian team to its best ever international performance at the 1994 World Cup, where the team reached the quarterfinals before Sweden ended their run after winning the penalty shoot-out. Hagi scored three times in the tournament, including a memorable goal in their 3-2 surprise defeat of South American powerhouse and previous runners-up Argentina. In the first of Romania’s group stage matches, against Colombia, Hagi scored one of the most memorable goals of that tournament, curling in a 40-yard lob over Colombian goalkeeper Oscar Córdoba who was caught out of position. He was named in the Team of the Tournament.

Four years later, 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 retired from professional football in 2001, age 36, in a game called “Gala Hagi” on the 24th of April. He still holds the record as Romanian national team top scorer.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	12 September 1984	Windsor Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	1–1	2–3	FIFA World Cup 1986 Qualifying
2	30 January 1985	Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal	Portugal	3–2	3–2	Friendly
3	3 April 1985	Stadionul Central, Craiova, Romania	Turkey	1–0	3–0	FIFA World Cup 1986 Qualifying
4	6 June 1985	Helsinki Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland	Finland	1–0	1–1	FIFA World Cup 1986 Qualifying
5	28 August 1985	Stadionul 1 Mai, Timişoara, Romania	Finland	1–0	2–0	FIFA World Cup 1986 Qualifying
6	23 April 1986	Stadionul 1 Mai, Timişoara, Romania	Soviet Union	1–0	2–1	Friendly
7	20 August 1986	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway	Norway	2–0	2–2	Friendly
8	10 September 1986	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Austria	4–0	4–1	UEFA Euro 1988 Qualifying
9	11 March 1987	Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus, Greece	Greece	1–1	1–1	Friendly
10	25 March 1987	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Albania	3–1	5–1	UEFA Euro 1988 Qualifying
11	20 September 1988	Stadionul 1 Mai, Constanţa, Romania	Albania	2–0	3–0	Friendly
12	2 November 1988	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Greece	2–0	3–0	FIFA World Cup 1990 Qualifying
13	3 August 1990	Stadion Allmend, Lucerne, Switzerland	Switzerland	1–0	1–2	Friendly
14	25 April 1990	Kiryat Eliezer Stadium, Haifa, Israel	Israel	2–0	4–1	Friendly
15	27 March 1991	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	San Marino	1–0	3–1	UEFA Euro 1992 Qualifying
16	16 October 1991	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Scotland	1–0	1–0	UEFA Euro 1992 Qualifying
17	6 May 1992	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Faroe Islands	2–0	7–0	FIFA World Cup 1994 Qualifying
18	20 May 1992	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Wales	1–0	5–1	FIFA World Cup 1994 Qualifying
19	20 May 1992	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Wales	5–0	5–1	FIFA World Cup 1994 Qualifying
20	29 November 1992	Neo GSZ Stadium, Larnaca, Cyprus	Cyprus	3–1	4–1	FIFA World Cup 1994 Qualifying
21	17 November 1993	Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff, Wales	Wales	1–0	2–1	FIFA World Cup 1994 Qualifying
22	14 June 1994	Trabuco Hills Stadium, Mission Viejo, United States	Sweden	1–1	1–1	Friendly
23	19 June 1994	Rose Bowl, Pasadena, United States	Colombia	2–0	3–1	World Cup 1994 Group A
24	22 June 1994	Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac, United States	Switzerland	1–1	1–4	World Cup 1994 Group A
25	19 June 1994	Rose Bowl, Pasadena, United States	Argentina	3–1	3–2	World Cup 1994 Round of 16
26	12 November 1994	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Slovakia	2–0	3–2	UEFA Euro 1996 Qualifying
27	15 October 1995	Všešportový areál, Košice, Slovakia	Slovakia	1–0	2–0	UEFA Euro 1996 Qualifying
28	9 October 1996	Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík, Iceland	Iceland	2–0	4–0	World Cup 1998 Qualifying
29	29 March 1997	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Liechtenstein	4–0	8–0	World Cup 1998 Qualifying
30	10 September 1997	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Iceland	1–0	4–0	World Cup 1998 Qualifying
31	10 September 1997	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Iceland	4–0	4–0	World Cup 1998 Qualifying
32	11 October 1997	Lansdowne Road, Dublin, Republic of Ireland	Republic of Ireland	1–0	1–1	World Cup 1998 Qualifying
33	3 June 1997	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Paraguay	3–2	3–2	Friendly
34	4 September 1999	Tehelné pole, Bratislava, Slovakia	Slovakia	2–1	5–1	UEFA Euro 2000 Qualifying
35	8 September 1999	Stadionul Ghencea, Bucharest, Romania	Portugal	1–0	1–1	UEFA Euro 2000 Qualifying

Career as coach

In 2001 Hagi was named the manager of Romania, replacing Ladislau Bölöni, who left the squad to coach Sporting Clube de Portugal. However, after failing to qualify the team for the World Cup, Hagi was sacked. His only notable achievement during the six months as Romania’s manager was the win in Budapest against Hungary, the first of this kind for the Romania national football team.

In 2003, Hagi took over as coach of Turkish first division side Bursaspor, but left the club after a disappointing start to the season. He then became manager of Galatasaray in 2004, leading the team to the Turkish Cup in 2005 final with 5-1 as a score vs. their rivals Fenerbahçe SK

Romanian team Steaua Bucureşti wanted to hire him in the summer of 2005, but Hagi’s requested wage could not be met by the Romanian champions. Hagi became manager of FCU Politehnica Timişoara instead, and after a string of bad results and disagreements with the management, he left the club after a few months. Constanţa’s main stadium used to bear his name, but the name was changed after Hagi signed with FCU Politehnica Timişoara.^[5]

From June 2007 to September 20, Hagi coached Steaua Bucureşti, had a mediocre start in the internal championship mainly due to the large number of unavailable injured players, managed to qualify the team for the second time in line to Champions League Groups passing two qualifying rounds. He resigned due to a long series of conflicts with the team’s owner Gigi Becali, which also happens to be his godson. The main reason for resigning was the owner’s policy of imposing players, making the team’s strategy and threats. Hagi’s resignation happened just a few hours after Steaua’s first Champions League game in the actual season with Slavia Prague in Prague, Czech Republic, lost with 2-1.

Honours

As player

Sportul Studenţesc

• Romanian League: Runner-up 1985-86

Steaua Bucureşti

• Romanian League: 1987-88, 1988-88, 1988–89
• Romanian Cup: 1986-87, 1987–88, 1988–89
• European Super Cup: 1986
• European Cup: Runner-up 1988-89

Real Madrid

• Supercopa de España: 1990
• La Liga: Runner-up 1991-92
• Spanish Cup: Runner-up 1991-92

Brescia

• Anglo-Italian Cup: 1993-94

FC Barcelona

• Supercopa de España: 1994
• Spanish Cup: Runner-up 1995-96

Galatasaray

• Turkish Super League: 1996-97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999-00
• Turkish Cup: 1998-99, 1999-00
• UEFA Cup: 1999-00
• UEFA Super Cup: 2000

Individual

• Romanian League: Top Scorer 1985, 1986
• European Cup: Top Scorer 1988
• Romanian Footballer of the Year: 1985, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000
• FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1994
• FIFA 100

As manager

Galatasaray

• Turkish Cup: (2005)

Career statistics

Club performance			League		Cup		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Romania			League		Cupa României		Total
1982-83	Farul Constanţa	Divizia A	18	7
1983-84	Sportul Studenţesc	Divizia A	31	2
1984-85			30	20
1985-86			31	31
1986-87	Steaua Bucureşti	Divizia A	14	10
1987-88			31	26
1988-89			30	31
1989-90			22	18
Spain			League		Copa del Rey		Total
1990-91	Real Madrid	La Liga	29	3
1991-92			35	12
Italy			League		Coppa Italia		Total
1992-93	Brescia	Serie A	31	5
1993-94		Serie B	30	9
Spain			League		Copa del Rey		Total
1994-95	Barcelona	La Liga	19	8
1995-96			5	3
Turkey			League		Türkiye Kupası		Total
1996-97	Galatasaray	Turkcell Super League	30	14
1997-98			30	8
1998-99			28	14
1999-00			19	12
2000-01			20	11
Total	Romania		207	145
	Spain		88	18
	Italy		61	14
	Turkey		127	55
Career Total			483	232

Teams managed
2001	Romania
2003	Bursaspor
2004–2005	Galatasaray
2006	Politehnica Timişoara
2007	Steaua Bucureşti