The Romanian press reckon Ianis Hagi‘s stunning display against Cyprus was a ‘slap in the face’ for Philippe Clement.
And the Rangers star now has his sights set on emulating his dad by starring at the World Cup in the USA. He’s struggled for minutes at Ibrox this season but Hagi remains a key player for his country and, with his dad Gheorghe a bona fide Romanian football legend, he makes headlines in his homeland every time he steps onto the pitch. Even his off-field life is big news – his wedding was streamed live on Romanian TV.
Needless to say they’re not especially happy he hasn’t been playing for Rangers, and one outlet made that abundantly clear after they beat Cyprus 4-1. Hagi laid on an impressive assist for Florinel Coman as they all-but secured top spot in their Nations League section, and with it promotion to League B. And Prosport‘s headline notes that ‘Hagi gave Clement a slap in the face’ with his assist.
They added: “Ianis Hagi was started by Mircea Lucescu in the match with Cyprus, and took advantage of this opportunity and slapped Philippe Clement, the coach of Glasgow Rangers. The Romanian international played a good match at the National Arena and managed to provide a spectacular goal assist for Florinel Coman.”
GSP gave him a seven out of ten rating and said he ‘deserves more’ in another apparent dig at Rangers. Another report labelled him ‘decisive’ and ‘integral’ to the Romania team.
Hagi was asked after the game about his future both with the Romania team and at Rangers. As far as his international career goes, the 26-year-old wants to play at the 2026 World Cup in north America, just like his dad did back in 1994.
He said: “We wanted to end this year on a positive note. We won the group and we are happy that the Romanian fans came to support us in this cold. We managed to play well, not only to win the match. We managed to mobilise, even if we conceded a goal. We managed to put, again, pressure as high as possible, to keep them away from our goal. Then came the spectacular goals, especially by Razvan Marin.
“We wanted progress from one action to another, because we knew that reaching a World Cup means more than that. I want to go to America, it’s been a dream of ours as a family since it was announced that they are playing in America. I wanted to get there, to get in the best shape.
“I am satisfied that I played 90 minutes today, it says a lot about the way I prepared. I will return the confidence of the coach on the field. Every time I entered the field, I brought something extra. I was hoping to play as well as possible, I pushed myself to play as well as possible from the first minute. I’m overall satisfied with my progress, probably that’s why the manager sent me on the field for 90 minutes. Most of all I want to play because football is my passion.
What about at Rangers? He was giving nothing away as he said: “I am ready for any level and I feel in a very good physical and soccer shape, better than ever. Sure, I want to play, now my mind is on Rangers. We have important matches, there are important matches until Christmas. I want to play football and feel good.”
Elsewhere, new technical director Nils Koppen has a plan to bring some of ‘the best talent in Scotland’ to Ibrox. Koppen steps up from his role as head of recruitment and will take on a role close to the one fulfilled by Ross Wilson before his departure for Nottingham Forest. It’s recognition of his influence behind the scenes, and a big part of his new role will be improving the club’s recruitment strategy which has fallen flat in recent years.
Buying low and selling high will be the aim and he wants to sign more of ‘the best talents in Scotland’ to get there – while improving the pathway from their own academy into the first-team. He said: “I think there’s a lot of good work to be done already in the last years within the academy but we cannot be satisfied with the general output of the academy. We have to keep on creating room for our own academy players to make the step to the first team and we can do that by a better squad build up for the first team to roster them into the first team to give them the opportunity to step up and be a part of that.
“I think one of the objectives still will be to sign the best talents of Scotland to maintain our best talents because I’m sure we’ve got a lot of good talents already in the building. We’re facing a challenge with the B Team where there’s not an ideal platform so it’s on us to try to get the best challenges and opportunities for the boys in our club.”
And Cyriel Dessers will end his international exile for Nigeria in their next games, according to manager Augustine Eguavoen. Dessers hasn’t played for his country since March earlier this year and boss Eguavoen opted to pick former Ibrox flop Sadiq Umar instead of him, despite Real Sociedad forward Umar failing to score a single goal this season while Dessers reached double figures for the campaign by netting against Hearts last week.
Now, after the Super Eagles fell to a shock 2-1 African Nation qualifying home defeat against Rwanda, new boss Eguavoen promised to include Dessers in their next international gathering. He explained: “For this camp, I had to stick with the players I know, it will be difficult to play those I have not worked with previously because of the short time to prepare for these matches.
“We have had only three, four days for these matches, so the time is not there to look closer at new players. But I want to improve our large pool of players so that we could have capable replacements.
“We should be patient. When we have friendlies, we will try to bring some new players like Cyriel Dessers and Chuba Akpom and work with them. I know Nigerians love this game so much, but sometimes we’re not patient.”