Convicted after buying a stolen Audi, the former champion of Romania found God: “Who is raising the child?”

The episode affected him deeply, especially because his wife was pregnant at the time. The fear that he might end up in prison and not be able to raise his child put enormous pressure on him, turning the legal issue into an existential crisis.

Initially sentenced to three years in prison with execution, the sentence was later suspended, and after the end of the probationary period, he says that today he is “with a clean record, before society and before God”. The experience forced him to reevaluate his priorities and the meaning of life

VIDEO. Andrei Mărgăritescu: “If I were to be arrested or convicted, who raises the child, how does he raise him?”

– Andrei, they say that suffering brings out the real man in you. Did that car episode mark you in a negative way?
– It marked me negatively. At that time, the wife was pregnant. Maybe if she wasn't pregnant, I'd see it differently. If I were to be arrested or convicted, who raises the child, how does he raise him? The pressure was double, triple. In my prayers and in all my research, I kept running into this idea, “What if I can't raise my child?” Everyone wants a career, but later you want to have a family, have children. Being spiritual, it's this part that fulfills you. You don't find fulfillment in a game won, only in love, kindness, truth, and that's only in God. Man looks for it in the family, in the children, but if you don't have God, you can't really have inner peace.

• Mărgăritescu was definitively sentenced, in June 2014, to three years in prison with suspension, for hiding in a case concerning luxury cars stolen from Italy.

• According to the investigators, Mărgăritescu allegedly bought an Audi A8 that was listed as stolen, being part of a network that brought cars of dubious origin to Romania, which he then “cleaned” with false documents and resold them.

• Initially, in 2012, the Bucharest Court sentenced him to three years in prison with execution, but the Court of Appeal decided to suspend the sentence. The former goalkeeper Cristi Munteanu was also convicted in the same case.

– Are the legal problems from the car episode over?
– They are over, yes. The first time I was sentenced to three years with execution, then with suspension and eight years of probation. They are done, now I have a clean record, both before God and society.

Andrei Mărgăritescu: “God says: “You will find me if you seek me with all your heart”.

– Have you experienced other disappointments during that period, that is, was there a combination of factors?
– Yes, I have before. After you leave football, you want to do something. I had an initiative with Rică Neaga, a restaurant, then I made a restaurant myself. You try to go into business, to do something, to have an occupation. You go into areas you don't know and unfortunately you fail. That's another mentality that we don't understand, you have to do something in the field you're good at or, if you want to change direction, first prepare yourself, “update”. I tried to do something with Rica, it didn't work. Then I tried with the family, but there were discussions, misunderstandings, injustices. And then the questions arise: “Why does injustice happen?”. In the family, with your wife, there are tense moments, and you start looking for answers.

– How did faith help you overcome these things?
– God says, “You will find me if you seek me with all your heart.” That made me search with all my heart too. I looked for my answers in psychology, until I came to the Word of God, which is the Bible. The Bible is the map of man, there you understand who you are, who others are, what is good, what is bad, where you come from and where you are going. That changed me, I saw the truth.