Hero Hagi looks to shape Romania's next generation

A huge mural of Gheorghe Hagi graces his soccer academy, a reminder of Romania's spectacular performance at the 1994 World Cup, when he led the unfancied team to the quarterfinals.

Now 60, the "Maradona of the Carpathians", or "the King" — as he is fondly known in the eastern European nation — dreams of leading his country back to the pinnacle of world soccer.

Romania has not reached a World Cup finals since France 1998, the edition after the glorious run in the USA, and it started the journey to qualify for the 2026 finals with a loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina last month, before rebounding with a win against San Marino.

At the academy, 200 youths aged from six to 19 are training, with Hagi — who has just released an autobiography — pushing them to be ambitious and imparting his motto that "anything is possible".

'Greatest fulfillment'

Since founding the academy in 2009, the Romanian legend has invested more than 25 million euros ($27 million) into the project, built from scratch near his hometown of Constanta on the Black Sea coast, about two-and-a-half hours' drive from Bucharest.

And it is starting to produce results.

Dozens of young players trained at the academy have found clubs in the top Romanian professional league, with many becoming team captains.

Nine of them, including Hagi's 26-year-old son Ianis, helped the national team qualify for Euro 2024, rallying supporters behind the squad known as the Tricolorii — referring to the three colors of the Romanian flag — for the first time in years.

Hagi, who calls the academy his "greatest fulfilment", also highlights how, last year, 60 percent of the national team's goals and assists came from players trained at the academy.

After playing for both Real Madrid and Barcelona, and making 124 appearances for Romania, Hagi retired from international soccer in 2000.

The midfield maestro known for his magical left foot and vision turned to coaching, including stints with the Romanian national team and at Turkish clubs Galatasaray and Bursaspor.

Now based in Constanta, he also coaches local team Farul, at which his career started and the side he led to the top of the country's first division in 2023.

Spanning 17 hectares with 13 soccer pitches, his academy compares favorably to training centers elsewhere in Europe.

Almost a third of the 200 players training there live on the grounds.

'Find solutions'

What Hagi wants for the players is a space where they feel "no inferiority complex to any other academy in the world", he told reporters at an event to mark his 60th birthday in February.

"Stop counting mistakes... You have to count achievements instead," Hagi tells those training.

"What you did yesterday doesn't matter today. It's history. You have to become better day by day," he often says.

His voice is loud and his temper can be volcanic, but those in his entourage hail his "heart of gold" and his "extraordinary courage".

Until Hagi invested in the academy, "youth football was no longer a priority for anyone" in Romania, his technical manager Cristian Camui told reporters.

Hagi — who last month received the country's highest achievement award — declined to be interviewed.

"(Without the academy) I don't think I would've made a senior team that fast," forward Iustin Doicaru, one of its promising players, told reporters.

The 18-year-old joined the academy seven years ago, and made his debut with the Hagi-coached Farul in the top league in 2023.

Doicaru says he will never forget his first goal for the team last December, and the congratulations from Hagi, whom he calls "the best Romanian footballer".

But, he says what he learned at the academy goes beyond soccer — he picked up "how to cope no matter what, to find solutions when it's the hardest".

AFP