Gheorghe Hagi | ||
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Personal information | ||
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Full name | Gheorghe Hagi | |
Date of birth | 5 February 1965 | |
Place of birth | Săcele, Constanţa, Romania | |
Height | 1.74 m (5 ft 81⁄2 in) | |
Playing position | Coach (former Midfielder) | |
Youth clubs | ||
1978–1980 1980–1981 1981–1982 |
Farul Constanţa Luceafărul Bucureşti Farul Constanţa |
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Senior clubs1 | ||
Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
1982–1983 1983–1987 1987–1990 1990–1992 1992–1994 1994–1996 1996–2001 |
Farul Constanţa Sportul Studenţesc Steaua Bucureşti Real Madrid Brescia Calcio FC Barcelona Galatasaray Total |
107 (58) 97 (76) 63 (20) 61 (15) 35 (7) 132 (59) 513 (237) |
18 (7)
National team2 | ||
1983–2000 | Romania | 125 | (35)
Teams managed | ||
2001 2003 2004–2005 2006 2007 |
Romania Bursaspor Galatasaray FCU Politehnica Timişoara Steaua Bucureşti |
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1 Senior club appearances and goals |
Gheorghe Hagi (pronounced [ˈge̯or.ge ˈha.ʤi] in Romanian; born February 5, 1965 in Săcele), is a Romanian former football player. He was famous for his passing, close control and long shots.
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 was recently named Romanian football player of the 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. [1]. Hagi is one of the few footballers to have played for both the Spanish rival clubs Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.
In March 2004, he was named among the top 125 living footballers by Pelé.
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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 their European Super Cup final against FC Dynamo Kyiv. The original contract was for one game only, the final. However after winning the trophy, Hagi 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 Liga I games, scoring 76 goals. He and the team reached the European Cup semifinal in 1988 and the final in the following year, champions of Romania in 1987, 1988 and 1989 and 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 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 relegated back to Serie B, and after performing memorably on 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 of the Istanbul side. Hagi and manager Fatih Terim built a team that would win four league titles. In 2000 was Hagi and Galatasaray's best year, with the Turkish side, lead by Hagi, managed to win the UEFA Cup after defeating Arsenal and then the European Super Cup Hagi's former club, Real Madrid. and win it, for the first time in Turkey's history. The mass hysteria caused by this win 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". At 35 years of age, Hagi was living his career's best, winning every possible trophy with Galatasaray in 2000. When he retired in 2001, he remained one of the most beloved players in the Turkish and Romanian championships.
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.
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 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.[1]
From June 2007 to September 20th (for 2 months, 3 weeks and 4 days), Hagi coached Steaua Bucuresti, 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.
He is also currently working as an Eastern Europe scout for Scottish Premier League team Inverness Caledonian Thistle. He recently found Marius Niculae for the club but has found no other players to date.
Club performance | League | Cup | Total | |||||
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Season | Club | League | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
Romania | League | Cupa României | Total | |||||
1982-83 | Farul Constanţa | Liga I | 18 | 7 | ||||
1983-84 | Sportul Studenţesc | Liga I | 31 | 2 | ||||
1984-85 | 30 | 20 | ||||||
1985-86 | 31 | 31 | ||||||
1986-87 | Steaua Bucureşti | Liga I | 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 | 3 | ||||
1995-96 | 5 | 0 | ||||||
Turkey | League | Fortis Turkey Cup | Total | |||||
1996-97 | Galatasaray | Turkcell Super League | 30 | 14 | ||||
1997-98 | 30 | 8 | ||||||
1998-99 | 28 | 14 | ||||||
1999-00 | 19 | 12 | ||||||
2000-01 | 20 | 7 | ||||||
Total | Romania | 207 | 145 | |||||
Spain | 88 | 18 | ||||||
Italy | 61 | 14 | ||||||
Turkey | 127 | 55 | ||||||
Career Total | 483 | 232 |
Preceded by Fatih Terim |
Galatasaray SK Coach 2004-2005 |
Succeeded by Eric Gerets |
Preceded by Cosmin Olăroiu |
FCU Politehnica Timişoara Coach 2005-2006 |
Succeeded by Iosif Rotariu |
Preceded by Cosmin Olăroiu |
Steaua Bucureşti Coach 2007 June-September |
Succeeded by Massimo Pedrazzini |
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Awards and achievements | ||
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Preceded by![]() |
Romanian Footballer of the Year 1993,1994 |
Succeeded by![]() |
Awards and achievements | ||
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Preceded by![]() |
Romanian Footballer of the Year 1997 |
Succeeded by![]() |
Awards and achievements | ||
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Preceded by![]() |
Romanian Footballer of the Year 1999 |
Succeeded by![]() |
Persondata | |
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NAME | Hagi, Gheorghe |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
SHORT DESCRIPTION | Romanian footballer |
DATE OF BIRTH | 5 February 1965 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Săcele , Romania |
DATE OF DEATH | |
PLACE OF DEATH |