'Anything is possible' at Hagi's $36m football academy

A huge mural of Gheorghe Hagi graces his football academy, a reminder of Romania's spectacular performance at the 1994 World Cup, where he led the unfancied team to the quarter-finals.

- 

CONSTANTA - A huge mural of Gheorghe Hagi graces his football academy, a reminder of Romania's spectacular performance at the 1994 World Cup, where he led the unfancied team to the quarter-finals.

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 have not reached the World Cup Finals since France 1998, the edition after the glorious run in the United States.

They lost to Bosnia and Herzegovina as qualifying for the 2026 Finals started in March, before rebounding with a win over 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".

Since founding the academy in 2009, the Romanian legend has invested more than €25 million (S$36.3 million) in the project built from scratch near his hometown Constanta on the Black Sea coast, about 2½ hours' drive from Bucharest.

And it is starting to produce results.