Golden boys back in Romania

By Paul-Daniel Zaharia

The last few years have not been happy ones for Romanian football supporters. With domestic competitions tainted by scandals and club finances prone to alarming peaks and troughs, the good old days seem a long way in the past.

Golden boys
Indeed, no Romanian club have managed to reach the group stages of the UEFA Champions League since FC Steaua Bucuresti did so for three consecutive seasons in 1994/95, 1995/96 and 1996/97, and for many fans in Romania, the only way to bring success back to Romania is to call on the Golden Generation.

Returning heroes
The Romanian players who reached the finals of the 1990, 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cups as well as EURO 96™ and UEFA EURO 2004™ were greatly missed when success took them to more successful clubs in the west, but now many of them have returned home to grace Divizia A in new roles.

Huge experience
Certainly, few would have expected many of the country's top players of old, with their huge experience of European football and handsome salaries, to be keen to return to the often chaotic Romanian football scene, but one by one, they have come back.

Hagi backtrack
Not least among them is Romania's most capped player, 39-year-old Gheorghe Hagi. Hagi tried and failed to take the Romanian national team to the finals of the 2002 World Cup as coach, and is now looking for a new role, and despite earlier comments, it could be with a Romanian club. "I am waiting for offers, but only from clubs which are willing to do their best," he said. "It could be a Romanian club, but only an ambitious one."

Vital experience
Hagi's old international team-mate Dorinel Munteanu is also back in Romania, despite having laid down roots in Germany. As he approaches his 36th birthday, Munteanu is playing with Steaua and is one of coach Victor Piturca's assistants bringing vital experience to the side - at least for a while. "I would have had limited chances to start as a coach in Germany," said Munteanu, capped 116 times by his country. "Here, in Romania, I have the chance to gain experience."

Coaching debut
Elsewhere in Divizia A, Ionut Lupescu is coach of FCM Bacau while Dan Petrescu has been similarly occupied since returning to Romania as assistant coach of FC National Bucuresti in 2002. Starting the 2003/04 season as coach of CF Sportul Studentesc, Petrescu was so successful that he was recently poached by last season's champions FC Rapid Bucuresti.

Presidential candidate
Meanwhile, Gheorghe Popescu, who earned 115 caps, has bypassed the world of management to become one of Romania's top football agents and is now regarded as a president of the Romanian Football Federation in waiting - not least by the current incumbent Mircea Sandu. "From my point of view, Popescu would be a very good president in the future," said Sandu.

New ideas
Popescu's elevation is just another sign of the changing times, and the new ideas that the old players are bringing back home with them. With the players having picked up vital experience while taking their coaching diplomas, Romanian football cannot help but benefit from the return of its favourite sons.

Priceless legacy
Certainly, most of the Golden Generation players are looking for long-term careers elsewhere in Europe, but if they can achieve even a fraction of their remarkable accomplishments on the field while they are back at home, the heroes of USA '94 will have left another priceless legacy.