Gheorghe Hagi has appointed Romania as head coach with the task of guiding the team to the 2030 FIFA World Cup

Romanian great Gheorghe Hagi took over as national coach for the second time, succeeding Mircea Lucescu, who passed away two weeks ago.

Hagi, 61, is widely regarded as Romania’s greatest ever footballer after leading the country to the quarter-finals of the World Cup in 1994. He also played for Barcelona and Real Madrid as a creative attacking midfielder.

His first spell as Romania coach was in 2001 and lasted three months, ending after he failed to guide the team through the 2002 World Cup play-offs.

Hagi has since coached clubs in Romania and Turkey – including Galatasaray and Steaua Bucharest – but is back in charge of the national team’s number 56 side, which will not be at the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The Romanians lost to Turkey in the play-offs, after which Lucescu became ill and resigned as coach. He died on April 7 at the age of 80.

«It is an honor and a great responsibility to represent Romania again, as I did as a player,» Hagi said in a statement released by the Romanian Football Federation.

«I am convinced,» he continued, «that we can achieve great things. I hope that I will also achieve the performances I have achieved as a player as a coach. I am convinced that we can become the best.»

Romania last played at the World Cup in 1998. It reached the eighth finals at the European Championship in 2024 and lost to the Netherlands.

Hagi’s first games in charge will be friendlies against Georgia and Wales in June. From September, Romania will be in a Nations League group with Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Poland.

He has signed a contract until the 2030 World Cup, with the task of “bringing the national team back into the elite of world football,” the federation said.

Federation president Răzvan Burleanu said his organization has made “several attempts over time” to have Hagi become a coach again.

Published on April 21, 2026