Article by Remus Dinu – Published on Thursday, 12 February 2026, 16:28 / Updated on Thursday, 12 February 2026 16:46
Professor Mircea Rădulescu, 84 years old, former head of the Coaching School and selector of the first national team more than three decades ago, speaks, in an interview given to Gazeta Sporturilor, about the current dilemmas in the life of the national team. Mircea Lucescu should to prioritize their health and take a step back before the “dam” with Turkey? Does he see a possible return of Hagi at the helm of the “tricolors”?
Former collaborator of “Il Luce” in the national team, the meticulous Mircea Rădulescu is of the opinion that Mircea Lucescu's pride is what prevents him from definitively ending his career.
Close to the current selector, the two coming from the same generation, the former head of the Federal Coaching School agreed to talk about the situation experienced by the current selector, recently discharged from the hospital due to health problems.
An admirer of Mircea Lucescu's career and also afflicted by the problems inherent to age, “Dom' Profesor” Rădulescu makes a sincere confession: “I also made an inventory of the operations I endured due to stress. I reached five.”
Mircea Rădulescu, about Lucescu's situation: “He's a proud guy, he doesn't want to be beaten”
“For me, things are clear. I don't know the opinion of the specialist doctors, I don't know what recommendations he receives, but when it comes to life and death, no one can give guarantees.
What else does he have to prove? Mircea Lucescu has something to prove that very few have. Or they don't have it at all. Pride! He's a proud guy who doesn't want to be beaten. If it is beaten, it is not given because of the health factor.
He is hardened with these obstacles which his own body creates for him, he has an exceptional genetic endowment, those who know him better know that... I stayed with him in training camps, tournaments… We often bump into genetics, you know. It has a strong structure, an organism capable of withstanding life's challenges.
I haven't spoken to him in a while, I know what it means to look for someone who has a medical sensibility.
Anyway, it was seen once again that this coaching job is extremely, extremely demanding on health. I was thinking, I also made an inventory of the operations I endured due to stress and I came to about five. Sometimes, the world doesn't know the trials of a football coach, especially when it comes to great performance”, Mircea Rădulescu pointed out, in dialogue with GSP. ro.
England-Romania (1985). From left to right: Gino Iorgulescu, Rică Răducanu, Ștefan Iovan, Costică Ștefănescu, Rodion Cămătaru, Mircea Lucescu, Silviu Lung, Mircea Rădulescu
Hagi selector? “He didn't say his last word! It would be for the good of Romanian football”
With Hagi's name circulating for a possible return to the national team, Mircea Rădulescu is convinced that “The King” should be the #1 solution on the table of the federations:
[Acum sau în viitorul apropiat, vedeți plauzibilă această mutare?] “Certainly. It would be for the good of Romanian football, because Gică Hagi is one of the few coaches who come from a great player and who adapted to the job of coach.
In general, great players, because of the burden caused by the past, fail to put on the coach's coat as written by the book.
Hagi succeeded and will continue to succeed, because he did not say his last word. I don't see Gică Hagi too far from putting on the coach's coat again”, said Rădulescu.
Throughout his career, Gică Hagi also coached the Romanian national team in 2001, for 5 matches, then moved to club teams, where he coached Bursaspor, Galatasaray, Poli Timișoara and Steaua. He later devoted himself entirely to the soul project at Ovidiu, where he made the Academy that bears his name, training the Future, which later became the Lighthouse, until the summer of 2025, when he decided to step back and retire.
PHOTO. Professor Mircea Rădulescu, through the tunnel of time
