Sawt Falasteen - At his academy, Romanian legend Hagi shapes future champions

Now 60, the "Maradona of the Carpathians", or "the King" -- as he is fondly known in the eastern European nation -- dreams of leading his country back to the pinnacle of world football.

Romania have not reached a World Cup finals since France 1998, the edition after the glorious run in the USA, and they lost to Bosnia and Herzegovina as qualifying for the 2026 finals started this month before rebounding with a win against San Marino.

At the academy, 200 youths aged from six to 19 are training, with Hagi -- who has just released an autobiography -- pushing them to be ambitious and imparting his motto that "anything is possible".

- 'Greatest fulfilment' -

Since founding the academy in 2009, the Romanian legend has invested more than 25 million euros ($27 million) in the project built from scratch near his hometown Constanta on the Black Sea coast, about two and a half hours' drive from Bucharest.

And it is starting to produce results.

Dozens of young players trained at the academy have found clubs in the top Romanian professional league, with many becoming team captains.

Nine of them, including Hagi's 26-year-old son Ianis, helped the national team qualify for Euro 2024, rallying supporters behind the squad known as the Tricolorii -- referring to the three colours of the Romanian flag -- for the first time in years.

Hagi, who calls the academy his "greatest fulfilment", also highlights how last year, 60 percent of the national team's goals and assists of the national team came from players trained at the academy.

After playing for both Real Madrid and Barcelona and making 124 appearances for Romania, Hagi retired from international football in 2000.

The midfield maestro known for his magical left foot and vision turned to coaching, including stints at the Romanian national team and at Turkish clubs Galatasaray and Bursaspor.

Now based in Constanta, he also coaches local team Farul, where his career started and which he led to the top of the country's first division in 2023.

Spanning 17 hectares with 13 football pitches, his academy in one of the EU's poorest nations compares favourably to training centres elsewhere in Europe.

Almost a third of the 200 players training there live on the grounds.

- 'Find solutions' -

What Hagi wants for the players is a space where they feel "no inferiority complex to any other academy in the world", he told reporters at an event to mark his 60th birthday in February.

"Stop counting mistakes... You have to count achievements instead," Hagi tells those training.

"What you did yesterday doesn't matter today. It's history. You have to become better day by day," he often says.

His voice is loud and his temper can be volcanic, but those in his entourage hail his "heart of gold" and his "extraordinary courage".

Until Hagi invested in the academy "youth football was no longer a priority for anyone" in Romania, his technical manager Cristian Camui told AFP.

Hagi -- who this month received the country's highest achievement award -- declined to be interviewed.

"I don't think I would've made a senior team that fast" without the academy, one of its promising players, forward Iustin Doicaru, told AFP.

The 18-year-old joined the academy seven years ago and made his debut with the Hagi-coached Farul in the top league in 2023.

Doicaru says he will never forget his first goal for the team last December, and the congratulations from Hagi, whom he calls "the best Romanian footballer".

But he says what he learned at the academy goes beyond football -- he picked up "how to cope no matter what, to find solutions when it's the hardest."

T.Samara--SF-PST