Gică Hagi, Romania’s coach, believes that Romanian football needs a long-term strategy and a greater emphasis on the training and promotion of young players.
Hagi spoke, during the most recent press conference, about the influence that Mircea Lucescu had on him, both as a footballer and in his coaching career. The former selector considered Lucescu a real mentor, and one of the important lessons he took from him is the need to identify early on players capable of becoming benchmarks for their generations and to give them the chance to assert themselves.
Hagi: “The biggest investment is in children!”
For Hagi, the model transmitted by Lucescu requires more than immediate results: it requires the courage to trust talented young people, to integrate them in high-level football and to build around them teams capable of achieving sustainable performances.
“We called many players from Romania, they are competitive players in Romania, who can play at a much higher level. Several things happened this summer, but if we want to have teams in European cups, then we have to have a long-term strategy, at least 10 years. The biggest investment is in children, if you want to have a team. We have too much fear when it comes to promoting players. We must have much more courage and the clubs’ policy must be based on more Romanian players.
“That’s what I learned from Mircea Lucescu!”
If you want to have good players, then the child needs a teacher. Just like I had a teacher since I was 12. I have seen national team players and there are reserves in Division B, I am talking about the young players, leaders of the generation. This is what I learned from Mircea Lucescu, you have to see the leaders of generations and try to bring them. A generation boss to go and not play, it’s a big problem. We have to take care of the Romanian player.
Don’t forget that the young player is not an accomplished player, he has a lot to do. That’s why Spain became the best in the world, it’s about mentality. In 1990 they did not get out of the groups and now they have reached perfection!“said Gică Hagi, during the most recent press conference.
Mircea Lucescu died on April 7, 2026, at the age of 80, at the Bucharest Emergency University Hospital. Hagi later ended up on the national team bench, at a time when the idea of reconstruction and development of Romanian football became one of his main priorities.
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