Hagi nurturing future champs

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

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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 football.

Romania has not reached a World Cup finals since France 1998, the edition after the glorious run in the USA, and they lost to Bosnia and Herzegovina as qualifying for the 2026 finals started this month before announcing a win against Israel in 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 imprinting his motto that “anything is possible”.

‘GREATEST FULFILMENT’

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