Full name||colspan="2"|Gheorghe Hagi
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|Date of birth||colspan="2"|February 5, 1965
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|Place of birth||colspan="2"|Săcele, Romania
|-class="hiddenStructure"
|Date of death||colspan="2"|
|-class="hiddenStructure"
|Place of death||colspan="2"|,
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|Height||colspan="2"|
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|-class="hiddenStructure"
|style="padding-right:1em;"|Nickname||colspan="2"|Maradona din Carpaţi
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|Position||Attacking midfielder
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! style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3" | Youth clubs
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|||colspan="2"|
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! style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3" | Professional clubs*
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| Years || Club || Apps (goals)
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|1982-1983 1983-1987 1987-1990 1990-1992 1992-1994 1994-1996 1996-2001||Farul Constanţa Sportul Studenţesc Steaua Bucureşti Real Madrid Brescia Calcio FC Barcelona Galatasaray||18 (7) 107 (58) 97 (76) 63 (15) 61 (15) 35 (7) 132 (59)
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! style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3" | National team
|-class="hiddenStructure"
|1983-2000||Romania||125 (35)
|-
! style="font-size: 80%; font-weight: lighter;" colspan="3" |
* Professional club appearances and (goals) counted for the domestic league only.
|}
Gheorghe Hagi/'gěor.ge 'ha.ʤi/ (born February 51965 in Săcele, Constanţa County) is a Romanian football player who played for the Romanian national team in three World Cups. Nicknamed "The Maradona of the Carpathians", he is a hero in his homeland as well as in Turkey. He has won his country's Player of the Year award a record six times, and was recently named Romania's player of the century. Most notably, he was named the best player of the 1990s by FIFA.
During the 1994 World Cup, Hagi made highlights by scoring vital goals for Romania, including a 35 meter lob against Colombia.
Having played for Farul Constanţa (1979/1980 and 1982/83), Luceafărul Bucharest (1980/1982), Sportul Studenţesc (1983/1986), Steaua Bucharest (1986/1990), Real Madrid (1990/1992), Brescia (1992/1994) and FC Barcelona (1994/1996), Hagi then joined Galatasaray, the Turkish club team that captured the UEFA Cup title in 2000. Prior to his third retirement in 2001, he won 125 international caps, scoring 35 goals (which ranks No. 1 all-time in caps and goals scored).
Hagi made his debut for the national side at the age of 18 in 1983. Since then he has been, literally, the cause of the rise of Romanian soccer in the 1990s. His playing style revolutionized the Romanian game - his speed and creativity made those famous counter-attacks possible.
At 5'8" tall, wearing size five boots, Hagi is one of the more diminutive players on the field, but in terms of his impact on the game, and the status of Romanian soccer, he is larger than life. By bringing so much respect to Romanian soccer, Hagi opened up opportunities for future players, as clubs from all over Europe come to scout talent in Romania.
Hagi has since returned to football as a coach. He became the head coach of the Romanian national team in 2001, although he only lasted six months as the team failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. He then took over as coach of Turkish first division side Bursaspor but left that club after a disappointing start to the season.
After an 18 month hiatus spent running a coastal Black Sea hotel and appearing in television commercials, he then returned to club management at the helm of the club at which he won his second European trophy, Galatasaray. He resigned from this position, on May 302005, at the end of his first season in the role. For many Galatasaray fans, a third place finish in the League (and therefore missing out on a prestigious berth in the 2005/2006 UEFA Champions League competition) was highly disappointing, despite the club's success in the Turkish Cup.
In November 2005, Gheorghe Hagi took over as manager at FCU Politehnica Timişoara, signing a contract until 2008. After disappointing results, Hagi resigned in May 2006.
