At his academy Romanian legend Gheorghe Hagi shapes future champions

CONSTANTA – 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 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 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 in March 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”.

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.

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 colours of the Romanian flag – for the first time in years.

Hagi, who calls the academy his “greatest fulfilment”, also highlights how in 2024, 60 per cent 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