The Europe that matters has given Romania away. What a fundamental mistake we are making

Relative to the transfer amounts, Romania is selling well this winter. CFR Cluj collected over 7 million euros for Louis Munteanu and Lindon Emerllahu, FC Argeș and Oțelul rounded off their budgets with the departures of Caio and Paulinho, FCSB would earn 1.5 million euros in exchange for Adrian Șut.

But we don't score at destinations either. We sell our best players in the East, in mediocre championships, not in England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France.

Munteanu, the top scorer of the previous edition of the Superliga, reached the last place in MLS. Şut, an essential footballer of the FCSB champions in previous years, gets a lucrative contract, but in the United Arab Emirates.

Emerllahu chooses to sign in a war-affected country, Ukraine, Caio is attracted to a lower Romanian championship, that of Latvia, while Paulinho, the #1 goal man of the Oțelul revelation, will perform in the second league in Poland!

Where has the Superliga sold this winter?

Only transfers out, for money

It's a trend: Europe's Top 5 are no longer looking at us

The situation was similar in the mercato window in the summer, when Romania did not propose players to the major European competitions.

The furthest went to Ianis Stoica, in Portugal, at Estrela Amadora, where the former Hermannstadt striker scored twice in the first part of the season.

In the rest, the footballers from the Super League, those who left for money, moved to Hungary, Poland, Armenia, Slovenia.

Where he sold the Superliga last summer

Only transfers out, for money

Where are we going wrong?

Gabi GlavanDirector of Scouting at Phoenix Rising Football Club, USL, America, underlines the cause.

“We don't sell in major European championships because we don't sell young, very young players. The top clubs on the continent are only interested in young footballers, let's say under 20 years old, whom they later develop”, the former official from Dinamo, Rapid, Craiova declares for GSP.ro.

“Our problem is that we do not have academies developed enough to propose young, interesting and valuable footballers for Europe's Top 5. Academies sell. Why? Because the players are already trained for the senior team when they make the step up to the seniors, they are close to their full potential.

Clubs that train really good juniors have constant guidance and training, whereas here our juniors have to survive – if they don't perform straight away, they're replaced. It would be normal for juniors to have a different status and their mistakes to be considered part of the process.

We train our players thinking that the big teams are looking for numbers, when these teams are actually looking for qualities. Those who look at the numbers are precisely those who buy from us, those from the Middle East“, he adds.

Gabi Glăvan, in the GSP Live studio

He continues, with concrete examples: “Yan Diomande arrives at Leipzig for 20 million euros, after previously playing only 10 times for the seniors, at Leganes!

Independiente del Valle from Ecuador transferred two twins to Arsenal, Edwin and Holger Quintero, sold players for 100 million in the last 4 years, players from their own academy who left immediately after appearing in the first team: Kendry Paez to Chelsea, Keny Arroyo to Beşiktaş, Medina to Genk, Caicedo, Hincapie.

Nordsjaelland, likewise, trains excellent players and sells them expensively, as in the case of Sindre Walle Egeli, who arrives at Ipswich for 20 million after two seasons in the seniors”.

Morocco does not qualify for the semi-finals of the World Cup by chance, it is not by chance that they won the U20 World Cup. Mohammed VI is a top academy, perhaps the best in the world in terms of facilities

– Gabi Glăvan, Phoenix Rising official