Article by Ovidiu Ioanițoaia – Published Sunday, December 14, 2025, 4:53 p.m. / Updated Sunday, December 14, 2025 5:01 p.m.
It really amuses me that I got lucky WC 2026 group draw because we fell with Australia, Paraguay and the United States. Of course I didn't fall badly. However, it seems to me that we are selling the skin of the bear in the forest when we talk about the World Cup, although we still have to play two play-off matches to get there. Both difficult, especially the first. The one with Turkey from next March 26.
Which will be difficult also because of the aberration of deciding everything in one leg, without return, even on the field of the better ranked team! Because Turkey ranks 25th in the current FIFA hierarchy, and Romania 47th. That's what the enlightened heads from Zurich decided, and the regulation, no doubt crooked, must be respected.
It is clear from the start that Romania will go to Istanbul, the match will be hosted by Beşiktaş's stadium, with a second chance. With a small one, an outsider. This is because the football of the Crescent is today superior to the tricolor, both at the level of domestic competition and international representation.
It is true that 30-40 years ago, even more recently, the Ottomans were our clients. I beat them wherever and whenever I met them. But that time has passed and today Galatasaray is present in the elite Champions League, a competition to which FCSB quickly said goodbye.
Galatasaray who, to make things even clearer, allowed themselves to buy the Nigerian Osimhen from Napoli for 75 million euros, but also to pay him 15 million a year! Lower ranked, Osimhen's reserve, the Argentinian Icardi, ex-Inter and PSG, also receives 7.5 million per year, compare them to salaries in the Romanian Superliga, none over half a million! And at Fenerbahce and Beşiktaş it's about the same.
Comparisons disadvantage us even more, they sometimes become humiliating, as far as we refer to national teams. If the entire tricolor team, made up of 23 players, is valued at around 90 million euros, 22 of them coming from Radu Drăgușin, the Turks have two 20-year-old footballers, Arda Guler from Real Madrid and Kenan Yildiz from Juventus Torino, together valued at 135 million, 60, and 75, respectively!
Taking into account also the captain of the national team, Hakan Calhanoglu, Chivu's student from Inter, another 25 million, we see that the Turks are better off. Much better. And what more would we be proud to have a Romanian, be he on the reserve bench, registered with Real or Juventus, am I wrong?!
Hakan Calhanoglu, star at Inter Milan
I resorted to this long introduction to urge you to understand that due to the quality of the host, but also the value, Turkey deserves to be considered the favorite for the match on March 26. In other words, a win for Romania, equal score is excluded, would mean a surprise. One in which we are obliged to believe.
Hoping that Lucescu's boys will be able to overturn the paper calculation and finish victorious at Beşiktaș Park, one of the most modern stadiums in the world and officially named, after the sponsor, “Tupraș Stadyumu”. If FCSB managed to come back from 1-3 down against Feyenoord in the Europa League and win in the end, why wouldn't the “tricolors” be capable of a surprise on the shores of the Bosphorus?
But let's look at the situation realistically and admit that the national team has problems. For example, Drăgușin has resumed training, but has not yet performed in an official match against Tottenham. In China, with Yunnan Yukun, Burcă is still on break, the championship will resume in January-February. Stanciu stopped being a starter at Genoa, Drăguș will not have the right to play as he is suspended, etc., Mircea Lucescu really has reasons for concern.
And then, what and how much will he be able to do considering that the “foreigners”, employed in the championship matches on the weekend of March 21-22, will arrive in Mogoșoaia on Monday, the 23rd, to board the plane to Turkey on Tuesday, the 24th, in view of the match on the 26th, Thursday evening?
In addition to the training to get used to the grass in Istanbul, Lucescu would have only one more training session, two at most, very little for homogenization. Even if the Super League stage from 21-22 will be postponed, as is normal, we would still work with our eyes on the clock, against the clock. But we'll talk about all that later.
