Madcap Steaua Bucharest president Gica Becali has revealed how he ordered his manager to make a first half substitution at the weekend and claimed credit for winning the match – as Rangers’ next Europa League rivals were rocked after star man Mihai Lixandru was ruled out for up to a year with a serious knee injury.
Rangers face the Romanians in their next Europa League encounter later this month after a win against Malmo and defeat to Lyon. But Steaua – European Cup winners in 1986 – are no ordinary club. They are owned by controversial businessman and former politician Becali, who was jailed for three years after a corruption scandal 11 years ago and who happily admits to making coaching decisions too. He also announced he wouldn’t be travelling to Ibrox for their next match against Rangers because he would “coach them from his bed”.
And he was up to his old tricks in Steaua’s 3-2 weekend win over Gloria Buzau. With Steaua 1-0 down and struggling, Becali ordered manager Elias Charalambous to haul off unfortunate defender Ionut Pantiru and replace him with Montenegro international Risto Radunovic. It did the trick as Steaua went on to win 3-2.
Becali said: “If we kept Pantiru on we would have lost the match. So in the 28th minute, I phoned the bench and told them to make the change. Why should I be afraid of any criticism I will receive for doing this? I didn’t want to lose. And what happened? Of course we won. Sometimes I don’t get a phone signal, but that doesn’t stop me, I use WhatsApp instead.”
Steaua won’t have one of their key players available after 23-year-old Romanian international Lixandru suffered a knee injury in the competition against PAOK. And Becali, revealed the severity of the injury, although he softened the blow by handing him a pay rise. He said: “It was a very scary injury Mihai received.
“We have heard it might take six months to recover, but in reality he will be out for up to a year we believe because it takes a long time to return to full match fitness. I talked to him after the injury and I encouraged him. The first thing I did was add an extra £5,000 to his salary. It’s a small consolation for the terrible injury.”