Gheorghe Hagi

Gheorghe Hagi (born 5 February 1965) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player, who is currently the owner and manager of Liga I club Farul Constanța.

Hagi started his career playing for the youth teams of FC Constanța under the guidance of coach Iosif Bükössy in the 1970s.

Deployed as an attacking midfielder, Hagi was considered one of the best players in the world during the 1980s and '90s, and is regarded by many as the greatest Romanian footballer of all time.

Fans of Turkish club Galatasaray, with whom Hagi ended his career, called him "Comandante" ("The Commander"), while he was known as "Regele" ("The King") to Romanian supporters.

Nicknamed "The Maradona of the Carpathians", he was a creative advanced playmaker renowned for his dribbling, technique, vision, passing and shooting.

After starting his playing career in Romania, with Farul Constanța, and subsequently featuring for Sportul Studențesc and Steaua București, he later also had spells in Spain with Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, Italy with Brescia, and Turkey, with Galatasaray.

Hagi is one of the few footballers to have played for both Spanish rival clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona.

He was selected by the Romanian Football Federation to join the squad of Luceafărul București in 1980, where he remained for two years.

In 1982, he returned to FC Constanța, making his Divizia A debut under coach Emanoil Hașoti in a 3–0 loss against SC Bacău, but one year later, aged 18, he was prepared to make the step up to play for a top team.

He was originally directed to Universitatea Craiova, but chose Sportul Studențesc of Bucharest instead.

He won a total of 124 caps for Romania between 1983 and 2000, making him the second-most capped Romanian player of all time, behind only Dorinel Munteanu; he is also the joint all-time leading goalscorer of the Romania national side (alongside Adrian Mutu) with 35 goals.

Hagi is considered a hero both in his homeland and in Turkey.

He was named Romanian Footballer of the Year a record seven times, and is regarded as one of the best football players of his generation.

In late 1986, Hagi transferred to Steaua București as the team prepared for the European Super Cup final against Dynamo Kyiv.

The original contract was for a one-game loan only, the final.

However, after winning the trophy, in which Hagi scored the only goal of the match from a free kick, Steaua did not want to release him back to Sportul Studențesc and retained him.

During his Steaua years (1987–1990), Hagi played 97 Liga I games, scoring 76 goals, and netted 98 goals in total in 107 appearances for the club across all competitions.

Hagi also won three consecutive league and Cup doubles with Steaua between 1987 and 1989.

His strong performances had him linked with Arrigo Sacchi's Milan, fellow Serie A club Juventus, and German side Bayern Munich, but Nicolae Ceaușescu's communist government rejected any offer.

Throughout his club career, he won numerous titles while playing in four different countries: he won three Romanian League titles, two Cupa României titles, and the European Super Cup with Steaua București – also reaching the final of the 1988–89 European Cup –, a Supercopa de España title with Real Madrid, the Anglo-Italian Cup with Brescia, another Supercopa de España title with Barcelona, and four Süper Lig titles, two Turkish Cups, two Turkish Super Cups, the UEFA Cup, and the UEFA Super Cup with Galatasaray.

With the club, he reached the European Cup semi-final in 1988, and the final in the following year, while Hagi finished as one of the competition's top scorers in the former edition of the tournament.

At international level, Hagi played for the Romania national team in three FIFA World Cups, in 1990, 1994 (where he was named in the World Cup All-Star Team after helping his nation to the quarter-finals of the tournament) and 1998; as well as in three UEFA European Championships, in 1984, 1996 and 2000.

After impressing at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, Hagi was signed by Spanish club Real Madrid on 27 June that same year; the La Liga side paid $3.5 million to Steaua București in order to acquire him.

Hagi played two seasons with Real Madrid, which were largely unsuccessful, scoring 20 goals in 84 games, and only winning the Supercopa de España; some of his most memorable performances for the club included a hat-trick in a 5–0 home win over Athletic Bilbao at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, on match-day 22 of the 1991–92 season, and a 40-yard lob against Osasuna during the same campaign.

He also helped Los Blancos to reach the 1991–92 UEFA Cup semi-finals, contributing with 3 goals scored in 10 appearances.

He was subsequently sold to Italian side Brescia for 8 billion lira in 1992.

Hagi was nominated six times for the Ballon d'Or, his best performance being a 4th place in 1994.

In 1999, he was ranked at number 25 in World Soccer Magazine's list of the 100 greatest players of the 20th century.

Following his retirement in 2001, Hagi pursued a managerial career, coaching the Romania national team, as well as clubs in both Romania and Turkey, namely Bursaspor, Galatasaray, Politehnica Timișoara, Steaua București, Viitorul Constanța and Farul Constanța.

In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, Hagi was selected as the Golden Player of Romania by the Romanian Football Federation as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years.

In 2004, he was named by Pelé as one of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers at a FIFA Awards Ceremony.

In 2009, he founded Romanian club Viitorul Constanța, which he has coached between 2014 and 2020.

Hagi also established his namesake football academy, one of the largest ones in Southeastern Europe.

Hagi was born to Chirata Hagi, his mother, and Iancu Hagi, his father.

Hagi's grandfather was one of 40,000 ethnic Aromanians who fled Greece to Romania.

His mother was born in Mesolakkia Serron and her original surname was Mega.

He set up home in the village of Săcele, near Constanța on the Black Sea coast.

Hagi has fond memories of his grandfather who, like many Aromanians, was a shepherd.

According to him, “I was proud when he, who was called Gheorghe like me, asked me to go and spend the whole day with him minding the sheep,” he said.

“I loved to eat cheese and tomatoes with him, and that is still my favorite food today.” He also said "ambition is the main quality of the Aromanians".