Gheorghe Hagi 🇷🇴 (1983-2000): skills, goals and assist

An attacking midfielder known as “Regele“ (“The King“ in Romanian), he was considered one of the best players in the world during the 1980s and ’90s, and is regarded by many as the greatest Romanian footballer of all time. He was also known as “The Maradona of the Carpathians“, being renowned for his dribbling, technique, vision, passing and fierce left-foot shooting. He played for the Romanian national team in three FIFA World Cups, in 1990, 1994 (where he was named in the World Cup All-Star Team after helping his nation to the quarter-finals of the tournament which is their best-ever finish to date) and 1998; as well as in three UEFA European Championships, in 1984, 1996 and 2000. He is shown here scoring against Wales, Austria, Finland, Cyprus, Portugal, Norway, Northern Ireland, Colombia, Turkey, Republic of Ireland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, the USSR, Slovakia, Sweden, Albania, Switzerland, and Argentina. He also scored against the Faroe Islands, Greece, Israel, Paraguay, San Marino, and Scotland. He represented Romania 124 times, scoring 35 goals which make him his country’s joint all-time top goalscorer alongside Adrian Mutu. At the end of the video he is shown helping his country to an important and famous victory against powerhouse Argentina to book a quarterfinal against surprise package Sweden during the 1994 World Cup in the USA. In what is considered by many to be the best match of that tournament, Romania came out on top 3-2 thanks to a brace by llie Dumistrescu and a third goal by Hagi himself, who also assisted Dumitrescu’s second of the match.