Dimitar Berbatov came face-to-face with the UK media on Friday as he was officially unveiled as a United and revealed trophies are top of his list at OT...

What was it about United that made you want to join?
It’s everything about the club from the red shirt to the glory that people think of when you simply say the words ‘Manchester United.’ It makes you think of the great players and the titles they’ve won as soon as you mention the club. The people who know me best - my family and close friends - know that I don’t play for money. I play because I like the game and I like to entertain. I can achieve that here and I want to help the team win more trophies. When the club said they wanted to sign me, I thought of nothing else.

Manchester City came in with a late bid on transfer deadline day. Was there any possibility of you joining them?
No. My only goal was to join United and now that I’m here I’m really pleased. My ambitions and goals are big and I want to fulfil them at the biggest club in the world. I was surprised when I heard about City’s offer and the money they wanted to spend, but it didn’t make any difference to me. I always wanted to come here.

There was a lot of uncertainty over your future before you actually joined United. How troubling was that for you?
Sometimes people don’t realise how the pressure can get to a player. During this transfer window it was really difficult for me. But when things work out in the end, you can look back and know it was worth waiting for.

Your game has been compared to that of Eric Cantona and Teddy Sheringham – do you see any similarities between yourself and those players?
It’s obviously a big compliment to hear these comparisons, but I have my own game and I never want to be compared to anyone else. Maybe in the future when I stop playing some people will ask the same question about me. But that’s why I play the game. I try to entertain and make people smile. If I can do that here like I did at Tottenham, I’ll be happy.

Did you model your game on anyone when you were growing up?
I always watched good players and worked hard to try to be like them. Marco van Basten was someone I looked to. He was a great striker and I tried my best to be like him.

Your body language when you play suggests that you have supreme confidence in your own ability. Is that the case?
Is that what I look like? [Interviewer: Yes, you look more than confident.] I may look like that but inside it might be a different story. As a player you have periods when things aren’t going well and you lose your confidence. You start asking yourself ‘am I good enough?’. I have been through a lot of those periods, but at the end of the day I know what my abilities are and I believe in what I can do on the pitch. That helps me through many difficult times and will help me come to a club like United.

It’s always been said that Cantona was born to play on the Old Trafford stage. Do you feel you are born to play here?
Only time will tell, but I really hope I will be successful here.

After a morning's work on the training pitch, the players refuel in the Carrington canteen…

Based on the first floor in the main building, the canteen seats around 100 people and is used by all club employees based at Carrington, including the manager, coaching staff, first team, Reserves and Academy players, as well as all operational staff.

“Demarcation is never an issue here,” says Sir Alex Ferguson, whose idea it was to have everyone eat in the same room.

“Everybody eats together; people wander about from office to office. It’s always been good that way at Carrington.”

Lunch is served between 12 and 2pm, with snacks and drinks available throughout the day. The man responsible for deciding what culinary delights are on offer is club dietician Trevor Lea.

“Chicken curry is always a winner,” says Trevor. “Some players would eat that every day. Low fat chicken curry, that is, made our way. Fish fingers and fishcakes are popular; we get through a lot of those.

"Pizzas are another favourite with toppings like chicken, spicy beef or tuna and sweetcorn. But again they’re not high in fat. We don’t smother them in cheese.

“The challenge is to make things tasty without fat. So we experiment a lot with different textures and herbs and other ways of getting taste in.”

After seven years of success as an international manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari was a wanted man over the summer.

Of course he ended up at Stamford Bridge, but could have taken a different path which would have seen him in charge at Manchester City instead going into this weekend's fixture.

It is a match that has attracted the headlines before the Brazilian's admission that he had discussed the manager's role at Eastlands, given City's recent takeover and signing of Robinho, a Chelsea transfer target.

'They offered it to me before, and they offered to me a very good situation, but in that time I was in Portugal and said I need time to think,' Scolari said.

'They have big projects. I listened to some ideas before I came to Chelsea about some ideas for Manchester City. They came to Portugal to talk to me about the ideas for the team in the next three or four years, fantastic.'

Scolari believes that despite the plans of City's new board, it is a long-term approach they need to take.

'They need results, not just to win games, they need more fans. It is a project not just for one or two years, but 10 or 15. It's very good for football, they have projects to grow and arrive,' he said.

'I came to Chelsea not because they are rich, but because they offered a fantastic job. I don't think about who is the more rich, if it's Manchester City or Milan, it's not different. If I am happy in my house I don't look in the other house. I need to look in my house first, and my house is Chelsea.'

Scolari knows that Saturday's clash, a late kick-off, will be a difficult one against Mark Hughes' side, boosted by the arrivals of Robinho and former Blue Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Looking closer to home, we are not without our own problems with injuries beginning to mount.

'It is difficult because I have some problems, I have [Michael] Ballack still injured, he tried all week to come with us tomorrow but it's impossible. I have Mikel started normal training but is not ready 100 per cent, but helps us,' Scolari said, before updating the situation with Didier Drogba.

'I have Didier who is 60-70 per cent ready. It is important that I say to the fans we have little problems but the players try to solve these problems and train better and try to help the coach.

'Didier is 50 per cent better than when I arrived - he is not the same Didier as six months ago, but he is starting to grow. His knee is good and he needs time to play, and I give him time. In the next month maybe he will make a mistake or not make one goal, we need to understand because now is the second time to arrive.'

There is though good news on Joe Cole, withdrawn from England duty with a gash to the head in midweek.

'If the doctor says to me he won't have problems with his head he will play, but if the doctor says this or that I will change and he will be on the bench or not go, but I think it's nothing,' Scolari confirmed.

Hendrik Johannes Cruijff (Johan Cruijff (help·info) - often spelled Cruyff outside the Netherlands; see IJ (digraph) - born April 25, 1947 in Amsterdam) is a former Dutch football player and manager/coach. He was named European Footballer of the Year three times (1971, 1973, 1974)^[1] which is a record jointly held with Michel Platini and Marco van Basten. Cruyff was the most famous exponent of the football philosophy known as Total Football,^[1] developed by Rinus Michels.

After his retirement from playing in 1984, Cruyff became highly successful as manager of Ajax and later FC Barcelona; he remains an influential advisor to both clubs.

In 1999, Cruyff was voted European Player of the Century in an election held by the IFFHS, and came second, behind Pelé in their World Player of the Century poll.^[2] He came third in a vote organised by the French weekly magazine France Football consulting their former Ballon d'Or winners to elect their Football Player of the Century.^[3]

[edit] Style of play

Through his career Cruyff became synonymous with the playing style of "Total Football."^[1] It is a system where a player who moves out of his position is replaced by another from his team, thus allowing the team to retain their intended organizational structure. In this fluid system no footballer is fixed in his or her intended outfield role; anyone can be successively an attacker, a midfielder and a defender. The style was honed by Ajax coach Rinus Michels around the time Cruyff came to prominence.

Strictly speaking, Cruyff played centre forward in this system. But he would drop deep to confuse his markers or suddenly move to the wing with devastating effect. No one had seen a centre forward like that before. Due to the way Cruyff played his game he is still referred to as "the total footballer."^[4]

Cruyff was known for his technical ability, speed and acceleration, but his greatest quality was vision, based on an acute sense of his team-mates' positions as an attack unfolded. The sports writer David Miller believed Cruyff superior to any previous player in his ability to extract the most from others. He dubbed him "Pythagoras in boots" for the complexity and precision of his angled passes and wrote: "Few have been able to exact, both physically and mentally, such mesmeric control on a match from one penalty area to another."^[5]

Cruyff also perfected a move now known as the "Cruyff Turn". To do this move, Cruyff would look to pass or cross the ball. However, instead of kicking it, he would drag the ball behind his planted foot with the inside of his other foot and turn through 180 degrees and accelerate away outside a defender.

[edit] Playing career

Cruyff played for Ajax, FC Barcelona, Los Angeles Aztecs, Washington Diplomats, Levante UD and Feyenoord.

[edit] Ajax

Cruyff joined Ajax youth system on his 10th birthday. He made his first team debut on 15 November 1964 in the Eredivisie, against GVAV, scoring the only goal for Ajax in a 3-1 defeat. That year Ajax finished in their lowest position since the establishment of professional football, 13th.^[6] Cruyff really started to make an impression in the 1965-1966 season. Cruyff established himself as a regular first team player after scoring two goals against DWS in the Olympic stadion on 24 October 1965 (in a 2-0 victory). In the seven games that winter he scored eight times and in March 1966 he scored the first 3 goals in a league game against Telstar (6-2 win). Four days later, in a cup game against BV Veendam (7-0 win), he scored 4 goals. In total that season, Cruyff scored 25 goals in 23 games, and Ajax won the league championship.

In 1966-1967 Ajax again won the league championship, but also won the KNVB Cup, for Cruyff's first "double". Cruyff ended the season as the leading goalscorer in the Eredivisie with 33.

Cruyff won the league for the third successive year in the 1967-1968 season. He was also named Dutch footballer of the year for the second successive time, a feat he would repeat in 1969. On May 28, 1969, Cruyff played in his first European Cup final against AC Milan, but the Italian team ended up winning 4-1.

In the 1969-1970 season Cruyff won his second league and cup "double", but at the beginning of the 1970-1971 season Cruyff suffered a long-term groin injury. He made his comeback on 30 October 1970 against PSV. In this game he did not wear his usual number 9 which was in use by Gerrie Mühren, but instead used number 14. Ajax won the game 1-0. Although it was very uncommon in those days for the starters of a game not to play with numbers 1 to 11, from that moment onwards Cruyff's number was 14, even using the number with the Dutch national team.^[7] There has even been a documentary on Cruyff titled Nummer 14 Johan Cruyff^[8] and in his native Holland there is a magazine by Voetbal International titled "Nummer 14".^[9]

In a league game against AZ '67 on 29 November 1970 Cruyff scored no less than six goals in an 8-1 victory. After winning a replayed KNVB Cup final against Sparta Rotterdam (2-1), Ajax won in Europe for the first time. On June 2, 1971, in London, they won the European Cup by defeating Panathinaikos 2-0. In spite of speculation that Cruyff would move to another club (Feyenoord and Barcelona were interested) on July 12, 1971, he signed a seven-year contract at Ajax. At the end of the season, he became not only the Dutch, but also the European Footballer of the Year for 1971.

1972 was a particular successful year for Ajax and Cruyff. Ajax won a second European Cup, beating Internazionale 2-0 in the final, with Cruyff scoring both goals. This victory prompted Dutch newspapers to announce the demise of the Italian style of defensive football in the face of Total Football. Soccer: The Ultimate Encyclopaedia says: "Single-handed, Cruyff not only pulled Internazionale of Italy apart in the 1972 European Cup Final, but scored both goals in Ajax's 2-0 win." Cruyff also scored in the 3-2 victory over FC Den Haag in the KNVB Cup final. In the league Cruyff was the topscorer with 25 goals as Ajax became champions. In the autumn Ajax won the Intercontinental Cup beating Argentina's Independiente (1-1 and 3-0) and then in January 1973 they won the European Super Cup by beating Rangers 3-1 away and 3-2 in Amsterdam. Curiously Cruyff's only own goal came on 20 August 1972 against FC Amsterdam. A week later against Go Ahead Eagles (6-0) Cruyff scored four times for Ajax. The 1972-1973 season was concluded with the another league championship victory and a third successive Europe Cup (Ajax-Juventus 1-0).

In the summer of 1973 Cruyff was sold to FC Barcelona for 6 million guilder (approx. US$ 2 million, c.1973). 19-8-1973 he played his last match for Ajax (Ajax-FC Amsterdam 6-1), the 2nd match of the 1973/1974 season.

[edit] Barcelona

At Barcelona, Cruyff quickly won over the Barça fans when he told the European press he chose Barça over Real Madrid because he could not play for a club associated with Franco. He further endeared himself when he chose a Catalan name, Jordi, for his son. He helped the club win La Liga for the first time since 1960, along the way defeating Real Madrid 5-0 at their home of Bernabéu. He was also crowned European Footballer of the Year.

During his time at Barcelona Cruyff scored one of his most famous goals, The 'Phantom' Goal. In a game against Atlético Madrid Cruyff leapt into the air, twisted his body so he was facing away from the goal and kicked the ball past Miguel Reina in the Atlético Madrid goal with his right heel (the ball was at about neck height and had already travelled past the far post), the goal was featured in the documentary En un momento dado in which fans of Cruyff attempted to recreate that moment, the goal has been dubbed Le but d'Imposible de Cruyff (The Impossible goal of Cruyff).

[edit] United States

At the age of 32 he signed a lucrative deal with the Los Angeles Aztecs of the North American Soccer League (NASL). He had previously been rumoured to be joining the New York Cosmos but the deal did not materialise. However, he did play exhibition games for the Cosmos. He stayed at the Aztecs for only one season, but was voted NASL Player of the Year in that time. The following season he moved to play for the Washington Diplomats; he played the whole 1980 campaign for Washington, leaving soon after the start of the 1981 season.

[edit] Back in the Netherlands

After his spell in the USA and a short-lived stay at Levante in Spain Cruyff returned to play in his homeland, rejoining Ajax 30 November 1980 as "technical advisor" of trainer Leo Beenhakker, Ajax being 8th in the ranking of the table of the Dutch League then after 13 games. Ajax would finish 2nd in 1980-1981 in June 1981 after 34 games. March 1981 Cruyff started to play for Levante Union Deportiva Valencia, a Spanish 2nd Division club. The club did not keep the financial agreements however. May 1981 Cruyff played as a guest player for AC Milan, in a tournament, getting injured. As a result he missed almost the entire American soccer season thereafter. In December 1981 Cruyff signed a new contract as player for Ajax. His already since November 1980 expected return was on December 6th 1981 against Haarlem (4-1 home win), Cruyff scored the first goal. In the seasons 1981-1982 and 1982-1983 Ajax with Cruyff became brilliant league champions, 1982-1983 Ajax also won the Dutch Cup (KNVB-Beker). One notable incident from this era was a famous goal he scored against Helmond Sport in 1982 while playing for Ajax. Cruyff scored a penalty the same way Rik Coppens had already done it 25 years earlier ^[10][11][12]. He put the ball down as for a routine penalty kick, but instead of shooting at goal, Cruyff nudged the ball sideways to his Ajax teammate Jesper Olsen who in return passed it back to Cruyff who tapped the ball into the empty net, as Otto Versfeld, the bemused Helmond goalkeeper, looked on. At the end of the 1982-83 season Ajax decided not to offer Cruyff a new contract. This angered Cruyff, who responded by signing for Ajax's archrivals Feyenoord.^[13] Cruyff's season at Feyenoord was a successful one, in which the club won the Eredivisie for the first time in a decade, part of a league and cup double.

[edit] International football

As a Dutch international he played 48 matches, scoring 33 goals. In his second Dutch national team match, a friendly against Czechoslovakia, Cruyff was the first Dutch international to receive a red card. He received a one-year suspension from the Dutch KNVB.

Accusations of Cruyff's 'aloofness' were not rebuffed by his habit of wearing a shirt with only two black stripes along the sleeves, as opposed to Adidas' usual design feature of three, worn by all the other Dutch players. Cruyff, however, had a separate sponsorship deal with Puma.

Cruyff led the Netherlands to a runners-up medal in the 1974 FIFA World Cup and was named the player of the tournament. Thanks to his team's mastery of Total Football, they coasted all the way to the final, knocking out Argentina (4-0), East Germany (2-0) and Brazil (2-0) along the way. Cruyff himself scored twice against Argentina in one of his team's most dominating performances, then he scored the second goal against Brazil to knock out the defending champions. The Netherlands faced hosts West Germany in the final. Cruyff kicked off and the ball was passed around the Oranje team thirteen times before returning to Cruyff, who then went on a rush that eluded Berti Vogts and ended when he was fouled by Uli Hoeneß inside the box. Teammate Neeskens scored from the spot kick to give the Netherlands a 1-0 lead, and the Germans had not even touched the ball. Only during the latter half of the final was his playmaking influence stifled by the effective marking of Berti Vogts, while Franz Beckenbauer, Uli Hoeneß and Wolfgang Overath dominated the midfield, enabling West Germany to win 2-1.^[14] Cruyff received a yellow card during half time for talking to the referee.

Cruyff retired from international football in October 1977, having helped the national team qualify for the upcoming World Cup. Without him, the Netherlands finished runners-up in the World Cup again. Initially the reason given for missing the 1978 FIFA World Cup were political reasons given a military dictatorship was in power in Argentina at that time. In 2008, however, Cruyff stated to Catalunya Ràdio that he and his family were involved in a kidnap attempt in Barcelona a year before the tournament, and that this had caused his retirement. "To play a World Cup you have to be 200%, there are moments when there are other values in life."^[15]

[edit] Managerial career

[edit] Ajax

After retiring from playing, Cruyff followed in the footsteps of his mentor Rinus Michels, coaching a young Ajax side to victory in the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1987 (final: Ajax-Lokomotiv Leipzig 1-0, goal: Marco van Basten). May/June 1985 Cruyff returned to Ajax again. In the season 1985/1986 the league title is lost to PSV, despite Ajax having a goal difference of +85 (120-35). In the seasons 1985-1986 and 1986-1987 Ajax won the Dutch Cup (KNVB-Beker). In 1988 Cruyff returned to Barcelona as manager.

It was during this period as manager that Cruyff was able to implement his favoured team formation. 3 mobile centre halves plus 1 covering space, almost a holding midfielder rather than sweeper (from Boeve, Blind, Silooy, Spelbos). 2 controlling midfielders (from Winter, Wouters, Mühren, Witschge) with responsibilities to feed the attack-minded players. 1 shadow striker (Bosman, Scholten). 2 touchline-hugging wingers (from Bergkamp, van 't Schip, De Wit, Dick) and 1 all-round centre forward (Van Basten). So successful was this system that Ajax won the Champions League in 1995 playing Cruyff's system. Terry Venables as England manager was an advocate of this system, based on free-flowing football and intelligent and incisive individuals carrying out seemingly simple functions, in the Euro 96 semi-final versus Germany, England used this system effectively.

[edit] Barcelona

At Barcelona Cruyff brought in players such as Josep Guardiola, José Mari Bakero, Txiki Beguiristáin, Goikoetxea, Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Romário and Hristo Stoichkov. Under Cruyff, Barcelona won La Liga four times between 1991 and 1994, and beat Sampdoria in both the 1989 European Cup Winners' Cup final and the 1992 European Cup final at Wembley. They also won a Copa del Rey in 1990, the European Super Cup in 1992 and three Supercopa de España.

Cruyff used to smoke 20 cigarettes a day prior to undergoing double heart bypass surgery in 1991 while he was the coach of FC Barcelona, after which he gave up smoking and began chain-sucking Chupa Chups lollipops instead.^{[citation needed]} He also led the anti-smoking campaign developed by the Health Department of the Catalan autonomous government.

With 11 trophies, Cruyff has been Barcelona's most successful manager to date, as well as being the club's longest serving manager. However, in his final two seasons, he failed to win any trophies, and fell out with chairman

Jorge Campos Navarrete (nicknamed El Brody or Chiqui-Campos) (born October 15, 1966) is a Mexican football coach and former goalkeeper, one of the most notable Mexican players of the 1990s. Campos was a particularly eccentric player, known for his constant play outside the penalty area, his acrobatic style in goal, and his attire. His strength in goal was his leaping ability and speed, which made him able to overcome his relatively low height of 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in).

Born in Acapulco, Mexico, Campos also made for an effective striker^{[citation needed]}, an example of rare versatility in football. At times, he would start a game in goal, and transfer upfield later in the match, mostly at the club level. His trademark, self-designed bright kits contributed to his popularity.

[edit] Club career

Campos started his career in 1989 in Mexico with Pumas UNAM. At that time the club's first-choice goalkeeper was Adolfo Rios but, because Campos desired first-team opportunities, he asked to be used as a striker. He performed notably in his first season, scoring 14 goals and even challenging for the title of top-goalscorer.

In the following seasons he earned the position of first-choice goalkeeper and won the 1990-1991 championship with Pumas UNAM.

He also won the championship with Cruz Azul in the 1997 winter season, though he was forced to play second-fiddle to first-choice goalkeeper Oscar Perez. He was regularly used as a substitute striker during this period.

As well as Pumas UNAM and Cruz Azul in the Mexican Primera Division, Campos also played for such clubs as Atlante, UANL Tigres, and Puebla.

He also played in the United States, where he starred in Major League Soccer's first three seasons for the Los Angeles Galaxy and Chicago Fire.

Gheorghe Hagi (pronounced [ˈge̯or.ge ˈha.ʤi] in Romanian; born February 5, 1965 in Săcele), is a Romanian former football player. He was famous for his passing, close control and long shots.

Nicknamed "The Maradona of the Carpathians", he is considered a hero in his homeland as well as in Turkey. He has won his country's "Player of the Year" award six times, and was recently named Romanian football player of the century.

He played for the Romanian national team in three World Cups in 1990, 1994 and 1998, as well as in three European Football Championships in 1984, 1996 and 2000. He won a total of 125 caps for Romania, being ranked second after Dorinel Munteanu, and scored 35 goals, being ranked first.

In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, he was selected as the Golden Player of Romania by the Romanian Football Federation as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years. [1]. Hagi is one of the few footballers to have played for both the Spanish rival clubs Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.

In March 2004, he was named among the top 125 living footballers by Pelé.

[edit] Club career

He started his career playing for the youth teams of Farul Constanţa in the 1970s, before being selected by the Romanian Football Federation to join the squad of Luceafărul Bucureşti in 1980 for two years. In 1982 he returned to Constanţa, but one year later, aged 18, he was prepared to make the step to a top team. He was originally directed to Universitatea Craiova, but chose Sportul Studenţesc of Bucharest instead.

In the winter of 1987 Hagi was transferred to Romanian giants Steaua Bucureşti as the team prepared their European Super Cup final against FC Dynamo Kyiv. The original contract was for one game only, the final. However after winning the trophy, Hagi scoring the only goal of the final, Steaua did not want to release him back to Sportul Studenţesc and retained him for the next years. During his Steaua years, (1987 - 1990), Hagi played 97 Liga I games, scoring 76 goals. He and the team reached the European Cup semifinal in 1988 and the final in the following year, champions of Romania in 1987, 1988 and 1989 and winning the Romania Cup in 1987, 1988 and 1989.

After the 1990 World Cup, he was signed by Real Madrid. The La Liga side paid $4.3 million to Steaua for him. Hagi played two seasons with Real Madrid and then was sold to Brescia Calcio.

Hagi helped Brescia Calcio win the Italian Serie B and get promoted to Serie A, but in the next season the club relegated back to Serie B, and after performing memorably on the 1994 World Cup, Hagi was signed by FC Barcelona.

After two years at FC Barcelona, Hagi signed for Galatasaray S.K.. Hagi did not win any trophies in Spain, neither with Real Madrid nor with FC Barcelona. However, at Galatasaray, he was both successful and highly popular among the Turkish supporters of the Istanbul side. Hagi and manager Fatih Terim built a team that would win four league titles, two domestic cups, the UEFA Cup after defeating Arsenal and then the European Super Cup after a final with Hagi's former club, Real Madrid.

[edit] National team

Hagi made his debut for the Romania national team at the age of 18 in 1983 in a game against Norway played in Oslo. He was part of the Romanian team until 2000.

Hagi led the Romanian team to its best ever international performance at the 1994 World Cup, where the team reached the quarterfinals. Hagi scored three times in the tournament. In the first of Romania's group stage matches, against Colombia, Hagi scored one of the most memorable goals of that tournament, curling in a 40-yard lob over Colombian goalkeeper Oscar Córdoba who was caught out of position. He was also named in the tournaments All-star team.

Four years later, after the 1998 World Cup, Hagi decided to retire from the national team, only to change his mind after few months and play at the 2000 European Football Championship.

Hagi retired from professional football in 2001, age 36. He's the current holder of the record for most goals scored for the Romanian national squad.

[edit] Career as coach

In 2001 Hagi was named the manager of Romania, replacing Ladislau Bölöni, who left the squad to coach Sporting Clube de Portugal. However, after failing to qualify the team for the World Cup, Hagi was sacked. His only notable achievement during the six months as Romania's manager was the win in Budapest against Hungary, the first of this kind for the Romania national football team.

In 2003, Hagi took over as coach of Turkish first division side Bursaspor, but left the club after a disappointing start to the season. He then became manager of Galatasaray in 2004, leading the team to the Turkish FA Cup in 2005 with 5-1 as a score.

Romanian giants Steaua Bucureşti wanted to hire him in the summer of 2005, but Hagi's requested wage could not be met by the Romanian champions. Hagi became manager of FCU Politehnica Timişoara instead, and after a string of bad results and disagreements with the management, he left the club after a few months. Constanţa's main stadium used to bear his name, but the name was changed after Hagi signed with FCU Politehnica Timişoara.^[1]

From June 2007 to September 20th (for 2 months, 3 weeks and 4 days), Hagi coached Steaua Bucuresti, had a mediocre start in the internal championship mainly due to the large number of unavailable injured players, managed to qualify the team for the second time in line to Champions League Groups passing two qualifying rounds. He resigned due to a long series of conflicts with the team's owner Gigi Becali, which also happens to be his godson. The main reason for resigning was the owner's policy of imposing players, making the team's strategy and threats. Hagi's resignation happened just a few hours after Steaua's first Champions League game in the actual season with Slavia Prague in Prague, Czech Republic, lost with 2-1.

It is thought that he may become main coach at Universitatea Cluj (currently situated on the last place in Liga 1).

He is also currently working as an Eastern Europe scout for Scottish Premier League team Inverness Caledonian Thistle. He recently found Marius Niculae for the club but has found no other players to date.

[edit] Honours

[edit] Player

• Steaua Bucureşti
  • European Supercup: 1987
  • Liga 1: 1987, 1988, 1989
  • Romanian Cup: 1987, 1988, 1989
• Real Madrid
  • Supercopa de España: 1990
• Barcelona
  • Supercopa de España: 1994
• Galatasaray
  • UEFA Cup: 2000
  • European Supercup: 2000
  • UEFA Champions League: Quarter Finalist 2001
  • Turkish Super League: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
  • Turkish Cup: 1999, 2000

[edit] Manager

• Galatasaray
  • Turkish Cup: 2005 (as coach) with score of 5-1 against Fenerbahce