"I hope that the performances I had as a player, I will also have as a coach. I am convinced that we can become the best." That's Gheorghe Hagi, 61 years old, taking the Romania job for the second time — and setting himself about the highest possible bar in the process.
The appointment was always coming once Mircea Lucescu died on April 7 at the age of 80, weeks after stepping down through illness following Romania's playoff defeat to Turkey. The federation had reportedly chased Hagi for this role several times before. This time, he said yes — and he's signed all the way through to the 2030 World Cup.
What he's actually walking into
Romania are ranked 56th in the world. They won't be at the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico — the Turkey defeat ended that. Their last appearance at the tournament was 1998. Their best recent result was reaching the round of 16 at Euro 2024 before losing to the Netherlands.
That's the gap between where Romania are and where Hagi wants to take them. Not enormous, but not nothing either.
His first stint in charge back in 2001 lasted three months and ended in failure — eliminated in the 2002 World Cup playoffs. Since then he's coached Galatasaray and Steaua Bucharest among others, so the experience is there. But international management is a different animal, and Romania's pool of talent has been inconsistent at best in recent years.
June friendlies against Georgia and Wales will be his first tests. Then a Nations League group with Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Poland from September — competitive enough to tell us something real about where this team stands.
The legend versus the job
Hagi led Romania to the 1994 World Cup quarterfinals, played for Barcelona and Real Madrid, and remains the undisputed reference point for Romanian football. The federation president admitted they'd made "several attempts over time" to get him into this role. The reverence is real.
But reverence doesn't win qualifiers. Romania need a competitive squad, a system, and results — not just a famous name on the dugout. The 2030 World Cup deadline gives Hagi time, but the Nations League group starting in September means the scrutiny starts almost immediately.
Romania's odds of qualifying for 2030 just shifted the moment this was announced — Hagi carries weight in that dressing room that no outside appointment could match. Whether that translates into points on the board is the only question that matters now.
