“I am extremely proud that I managed to beat Gică Hagi 6 times for the Footballer of the Year!”

Ashley Davis17/12/2025

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Article by Marius Mărgărit – Published on Wednesday, 17 December 2025, 00:00 / Updated on Wednesday, 17 December 2025 00:01

Never in the 60-year history of Gazeta Sporturilor's investigation, for the designation of the best Romanian player of the year, has there been a more interesting and longer competition between two footballers, like the one between Gică Hagi (60 years old) and Gică Popescu (58 years old). “Many prizes are given now, but the one given by Gazeta Sporturilor is the most relevant”, says Baciul in a dialogue with GSP.

Having reached its 60th edition, the Gazetei Sporturilor Investigation, the oldest and most prestigious awarding of trophies in Romanian sport, will award its champions on Wednesday, December 17, from 8:00 p.m.
5 major awards will be awarded: Footballer of the Year, Coach of the Year, Foreigner of the Year and Sportsperson of the Year, following a complex voting system that includes fans, journalists, club officials, coaches, captains and federations.
On December 18, free of charge, together with the newspaper Libertatea, Gazeta Sporturilor publishes a collection edition of the newspaper, of 24 pages, with the best interviews given by the winners.

Gica vs. Gica, the greatest “match” in history

In the period 1985-2000, Hagi and Popescu won 13 of the 16 titles in this hierarchy, their “dispute” being extremely interesting. Among them were Helmuth Duckadam (1986), Dorin Mateuț (1988) and Adrian Ilie (1998).

Two years older, Hagi opened the “score” with trophies in 1985 and 1987, Gică Popescu replicated with 4 in a row, in the period 1989-1992. Then, the first came back and equalized after the hierarchies of 1993 and 1994, “Baciul” made it 6-4, with two more consecutive successes in 1995 and 1996.

So that in the end, “Maradona from the Carpathians” will be decisive with the awards of 1997, 1999 and 2000. It ended 7-6 for Hagi, but Popescu remains the player with the longest series of consecutive trophies, the 4 titles of footballer of the year in the period '89-'92.

Gică Popescu with the Fobalist of the Year trophy, awarded by Gazeta Sporturilor, photo: personal archive

“When you talk about a good football player, the first thing you ask is: “What did he win?!””

In a dialogue with GSP.ro, Gică Popescu remembers with emotion, but also with nostalgia, those times “when, despite this competition between us, we were always very good friends. It was never a reason for adversity. And in addition to personal successes, we also managed to win trophies, to perform in the club or national teams.

I look now and see that in recent years they have been taking the trophy for the best footballer of the year and players who have not won anything. I think we are unique, this title is awarded for dribbles, goals, phases, moments, some matches, while outside you know how it is? For the first time, he asks himself “What did he win?!”.

That's why it's hard for me sometimes, it's really complicated to decide, as club president, who to put first in Gazeta Sporturilor's investigation. Because, unfortunately, they are all about there, there is no one about whom you can say, “yes, he is, by far, the best Romanian footballer of the year”.

Gică Popescu: “I really wanted to win in Gazeta Sporturilor's investigation”

Returning to the period in which he was dueling with Gică Hagi, “Baciul” says that “I will never forget the moment when I found out that I won the first football player of the year trophy, in December 1989. I was at home, in Craiova, I was sleeping. And around 8:00 in the morning the phone rang.

It was the journalist Laurențiu Dumitrescu, who informed me that I was the footballer of the year in Gazeta Sporturilor's investigation and that the results would be published in the newspaper the next day. I can't describe what I felt then. It was really a childhood dream, when I couldn't wait for the newspapers, to see the results, if someone from Craiova University won.

I was just a kid who thought from then on that he wanted to be declared the footballer of the year. In '89 I was the captain of Craiova University and I really wanted to win too, after Hagi had already succeeded twice. I called my father first. He was super happy, proud.

You realize that he also immediately called all his relatives. It wasn't a celebration, I wasn't even called to Bucharest to give me the trophy. It was a soccer cleat. I later recovered it when I won the surveys in the early 90s.

After I had a very good World Cup in Italy and I transferred to Eindhoven, where I won the championship twice in a row. I was also nominated for their footballer of the year, along with Romario and Bergkamp. That's why we won in Gazeta Sporturilor's investigation three more times in a row.

I keep those trophies and they are all equally dear to me. But the first one, the one from '89, of course has a special scent. At that time you couldn't wish for anything more, there was nothing more coveted, it was the most important confirmation of a year's work”.

Gică Popescu, photomontage: Diana Vasilescu / GSP

“Always, on the first day of the year, I made a wish: I want to be better than Gică Hagi!”

Gică Popescu doesn't shy away, she always said it: “Every time, during that period, I had this, like a kind of ritual, at the beginning of the new year. On January 1, when I woke up, the first wish I made was “I want to be better than Gică Hagi!”.

And I am extremely proud that I had this competition with him and that I managed to win 6 times in front of the best footballer in the history of Romania. In the conditions in which I played most of my career as a defender. It was a long but beautiful duel, and I think unique!

We didn't tease each other about it, we were too good friends. But that also kept us engaged, motivated us, to want to be the best. We were also teammates, at the club, at the national team. We were both winners and wanted to perform.

That's how everyone should be, always wanting to be the best. But you have to work every day, every practice, every match, for that. That's how we were!”.

Johann Cruyff and Gică Popescu, under the Catalan sun

“Too many prizes are given now, but the one from Gazeta Sporturilor's investigation remains the most relevant!”

The former great international does not believe that there will be a competition at the level of the 90s-2000s, when there were many valuable players with performances. Remembering, he still has a wave of regret that he didn't win in Gazeta Sporturilor's investigation in 1997, when the laureate was Gică Hagi.

It's like he can't believe it even now: “Do you realize what it was like then, at what level we were? I'll give you an example. In '97, I was captain at Barcelona, I had won the Cup, the Super Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup. And I didn't get the Footballer of the Year. In the 90s there were no special galas, miss contests were organized and Gazeta Sporturilur trophies were awarded within them.

Now, for some years, it seems to me that there are too many galas, to give too many awards. It was normal for there to be only one in which the title of Footballer of the Year was awarded. But the one from Gazeta Sporturilor's investigation remains the most relevant, the most important!

And I really wish that in the future we would have footballers who would repeat that duel that I had with Gică Hagi in those years. That would be awesome! Because their performances would also be reflected in those of the national team. I hope we live something like this again, for the good of Romanian football”.