Athlete of the week

Fotballer Ianis Hagi

Florin Orban, 21.11.2023, 13:45

Romanian national football team has booked its ticket for EURO 2024. Head-coach
Edward Iordănescu succeeded such a performance with a pool of regulars made of young
footballers. Of them, only two footballers had been to a final tournament
before, Denis Alibec and Nicolae
Stanciu. We recall Alibec and Stanciu were under the helm of Edward
Iordanescu’s father, Anghel Iordanescu, at the 2016 edition of the European
Championship hosted by France. Today’s generation of important national team
footballers ok shape in 2019 when Romania’s national U-21 team reached as far
as the semifinals of the European Championship, jointly hosted by Italy and San
Marino. Ianis Hagi is one of the leaders of this generation. We recall Ianis is
currently a midfielder for Spanish first-league team, Deportivo Alavés. ON
Saturday, Ianis Hagi sealed the fate of the match pitting Romania against Israel,
scoring the winning goal for his team. Romanian national squad’s 2-1 win
against Israel sent the team to the EURO 2024 one round ahead of the
preliminaries’ final stage.

Reason enough for Radio Romania International to
designate Ianis Hagi the Athlete of the week.

In Hungary’s Felcsút, the locality that played host to
Romania’s match against Israel, Ianis Hagi was on the pitch from the very first
minute of play. When the score was 1-all, Ianis Hagi shot the ball inside
Israeli’s box in minute 63, scoring the winning goal for his team. Immediately
after he scored, Ianis was replaced by Florinel Coman. The score stayed the
same until the end of the match. Here is what Ianis Hagi stated after the match
We met our set target. That’s what we worked for. That’s what we wanted for
ourselves, right from the start and I believe we fully deserved out ticket for
EURO.

Ianis Hagi is the son of one of Romania’s greatest footballers, Gheorghe
Hagi. He was born on October 22, 1998, in Istanbul, Turkey, at the time when
his father was signed up by Galatasaray. He began playing football with the
Gheorghe Hagi Academy in Ovidiu, a locality in the vicinity of Romania’s main Black
Sea harbour, Constanta. In 2014, Ianis
Hagi made his debut in Romania’s League one, also under the helm of his father,
being signed up by Viitorul Constanta. Ianis Hagi’s career includes stints with
Fiorentina, in Italy, with Genk, in Belgium and with Scottish team Glasgow Rangers.
Ianis Hagi is still under contract with Rangers, but he has been on loan for Alaves
since this summer. Ianis Hagi made his debut with Romania’s national team in
the autumn of 2018. We recall that back then Romania secured a 3-nil win against
Lithuania, in a League of Nations match.