Mircea Lucescu is preventing for one final World Cup whereas at the identical time battling his personal physique. He has lived by 1000’s of video games as a participant and supervisor however these might be the toughest of all of them: two playoff video games to take Romania to their first World Cup in 28 years.
Lucescu is 80 years outdated now and has not been nicely – however he has misplaced none of his power, nor love for the sport. Since December he has been admitted to hospital on three events however right here he’s, with an espresso in entrance of him, discussing his lengthy profession, the playoff semi‑final against Turkey on Thursday and Ukraine, a place he used to name dwelling. He doesn’t, nevertheless, wish to disclose the precise nature of his illness for concern that it’s going to grow to be the main target over the subsequent few weeks.
“When the doctors told me I could go on coaching, I focused on what I had to do for Romania,” he tells the Guardian in a uncommon interview. “I spoke to the federation and they told me they couldn’t find a solution to the situation. I’m not in my best shape so I would have stepped away if there was another option available. But I insist: I can’t leave like a coward. We must believe in our chance to qualify.”
Lucescu has misplaced weight however his face nonetheless lights up when speaking about soccer. It has at all times been like that for him. Before a powerful managerial profession, he was a participant and captained Romania at the 1970 World Cup. The Tricolours confronted Pelé’s Brazil, England – the defending champions – and Czechoslovakia. Romania left a sturdy impression on the soccer world. They beat Czechoslovakia 2-1 however misplaced narrowly in opposition to Brazil and England. Their soccer, below the steerage of the enduring supervisor Angelo Niculescu, has been recognised as an inspiration for Pep Guardiola and tiki-taka.
“We achieved some extraordinary results when we played our way of football,” Lucescu says. “We knew little about what was happening around us; we were coming from a closed, communist regime.
“We reached the World Cup in Mexico. Just 16 teams there. We tried to show our way of playing: we knew how to pass well and we used this to counter the force of our opponents. After 1970 things changed in the national team and we lost our identity.”
Just a decade after that match, nevertheless, Lucescu was given the possibility to educate Romania for the primary time. He was solely 36 years outdated however the staff reached Euro 1984 (solely eight groups did) and was near qualifying for the 1986 World Cup with him in cost.
“When I built the national team more than 40 years ago I wanted the young players to be hungry to play for Romania. I gave them chances at the senior level. I want players who are strongly motivated and who can control their emotions. I wanted to build self‑belief in their minds – that leads to performance. The 80s and the 90s were full of success. Even though the boys left Romania after the fall of communism to play abroad they always remembered the connection between themselves and the national team.”
In 1983 Lucescu gave a debut to an 18‑yr‑outdated Gheorghe Hagi, arguably the very best participant in Romania’s historical past. He went on to play for Real Madrid and Barcelona and was later coached by Lucescu at Brescia and Galatasaray. Lucescu stayed as Romania coach till 1986 and constructed the foundations for the nation to achieve three consecutive World Cups in 1990, 1994 and 1998 as nicely because the European Championships of 1996 and 2000.
A profitable profession as a membership coach adopted with Lucescu taking cost of sides resembling Inter, Galatasaray and Besiktas, Zenit St Petersburg, in addition to Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv. For a very long time, he was the second most profitable supervisor on the planet, with greater than 30 trophies received, behind solely Sir Alex Ferguson earlier than Guardiola overtook him.
His second stint as Romania supervisor started shortly after the 2024 European Championship. “I felt it was my duty to take charge of the team. It wasn’t just a major responsibility. It was my duty for everything that Romanian football has ever given to me. I was indebted. It was never about money, never about another medal. I have enough trophies. I hoped to help by changing the way Romanian football works at a mental level.”
While in hospital, he saved in shut contact with his gamers and employees whereas additionally analysing Turkey video games. “We will play in front of an impossible atmosphere. I know it to perfection: Besiktas’s home stadium. When I left the club I had two more years left of my contract but I left the money to the club with the firm commitment that they would use it to rebuild the stadium. It’s one of the best stadiums I’ve ever been to. When the other team has the ball they put the pressure on. And it’s an extraordinary pressure. I don’t know if there’s any remedy for the noise they will create. I will need to explain to my boys, to those who haven’t been to play in Turkey, what awaits them.”
Lucescu is aware of what awaits him and the staff in Turkey however different issues have taken him without warning. “I was very surprised to see how things had changed since I returned to coach Romania,” he says.
“It’s tougher and tougher these days to find praise, isn’t it? I mean I am half-joking but I guess I want those who are criticising us to put everything into context and to be objective, without hate. We see how fake news moves these days and how it influences the public. What was possible 40 years ago isn’t possible now, with everything that has happened with technology and the media. But you just can’t build if you’re surrounded by a negative environment all the time. It’s impossible.”
The buildup to the Turkey sport has not been straightforward. Lucescu had been hit by withdrawals and now he has to do with out the Celta Vigo goalkeeper Ionut Radu and the Pisa midfielder Marius Marin due to accidents. They would each have began. Lucescu just isn’t one to really feel sorry for himself, although. “I need players who come and put their entire soul on the pitch. And I don’t need those two hours or a day or two. I want national team players to be above everyone else. I often call the boys, and I tell them to try to do this and that. Because I don’t need them to run three kilometres during a training session. During a match, you need to run 11 kilometres! If they are not playing, I tell them to train more than everyone else. To go to a forest, to go to a park, to run and exercise. Everything starts in your brain. You make settings for success or failure in your brain.
“I speak a lot with them. They regularly ask me how I’m feeling. They thank me for sticking around. In tactical talks I need to be quick. [These days] players lose concentration during meetings after about 10 minutes. You need to be able to tell them what’s essential for them to know in those minutes when you have their full focus.”
Lucescu refuses to stay up for a potential World Cup finals berth – they must overcome Slovakia or Kosovo within the playoff ultimate in the event that they beat Turkey – however he has been fascinated about Ukraine, who’re in a completely different playoff path. He left an unmatched legacy after 12 years at Shakhtar Donetsk and then spent one other three with Dynamo Kyiv. Lucescu nonetheless thinks of the house he left behind in 2014. He was in Donetsk when the primary photographs had been fired, 12 years in the past, then in Kyiv when Russia invaded in February 2022. “I keep in touch with my former players and my friends in Ukraine. The situation there is horrible. I remember I left Donetsk in 2014 when the conflict started in Donbas. I left my apartment with everything inside and I never returned. I don’t know what happened to my home there. I have no information from anyone as we had to move the club from Donetsk.”
His thoughts returns to the right here and now and a World Cup playoff that’s simply a few days away. “I am happy for the players. They made it to this level under highly difficult circumstances. They went to play for clubs all over the world, from China to the Gulf states, to the European lower leagues and the Romanian championship. They are trying to adapt and make a name for themselves. Like all the Romanians working outside our borders.
“I hope that my players treat this game as a moment to mark a before and after. It can define a generation. It would be an extraordinary achievement to reach the World Cup. Not for me, but for Romania.”
