BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania great Gheorghe Hagi has been hired as national team coach for the second time. He was appointed to replace Mircea Lucescu, who died two weeks ago.
The 61-year-old Hagi is widely regarded as Romania’s greatest ever soccer player, having led the country to the World Cup quarterfinals in 1994. He also played for Barcelona and Real Madrid as a creative attacking midfielder.
His first stint as Romania coach was in 2001 and lasted three months, ending after failing to get the team through the playoffs for the 2002 World Cup.
Hagi has since coached clubs in Romania and Turkey — including Galatasaray and Steaua Bucharest — but is back in charge of the No. 56-ranked national team, which will not be at the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The Romanians lost to Turkey in the playoffs, after which Lucescu fell ill and stepped down as coach. He died April 7, at the age of 80.
“It is an honor and a great responsibility to represent Romania once again, as I did as a player,” Hagi said in a statement released by Romania’s soccer federation.
“I am convinced,” he added, “that we can achieve beautiful things. I hope that the performances I had as a player, I will also have as a coach. I am convinced that we can become the best.”
Romania last played at the World Cup in 1998. It reached the round of 16 at the European Championship in 2024, losing to the Netherlands.
Hagi’s first games in charge will be friendlies against Georgia and Wales in June. Romania is in a Nations League group with Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Poland starting in September.
He has signed a contract through to the 2030 World Cup, with the task of “bringing the national team back into the elite of world football,” the federation said.
Federation president Răzvan Burleanu said his organization has made “several attempts over time” to get Hagi to become coach again.
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FILE - Former Romanian soccer star Gheorghe Hagi holds an autographed t-shirt after receiving the Star of Romania award, in Bucharest, Romania, on March. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru, File)
LONDON (AP) — A former top UK Foreign Office official says Peter Mandelson did not fail security vetting because of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Olly Robbins says concerns raised during security vetting did not relate to the convicted sex offender.
He said the vetting agency considered Mandelson a “borderline case” and was “leaning toward recommending against” giving him security clearance to be British ambassador to Washington.
The Foreign Office decided to clear him anyway.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
LONDON (AP) — The ex-civil servant behind the decision to approve Peter Mandelson’s appointment as British ambassador to Washington says he felt political pressure to rush through the appointment despite security concerns.
Olly Robbins, former head of the Foreign Office, was fired by Prime Minister Keir Starmer last week.
He told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday that there was an “atmosphere of pressure” coming from Starmer’s office.
He said there was “a very, very strong expectation” that Mandelson “needed to be in post and in America as quickly as possible.”
Starmer is facing calls to resign over the revelation that Mandelson was given the crucial diplomatic post despite failing security checks.
Robbins said there was “a generally dismissive attitude” to the security vetting in January 2025, before Mandelson went to Washington.
The prime minister says he made the wrong judgment when he picked Jeffrey Epstein ’s friend Mandelson for the job. But he said he would have withdrawn the appointment if he’d known about the security vetting.
Starmer has placed blame squarely on Foreign Office officials, who he said failed to tell him about the security concerns and approved Mandelson’s appointment despite them.
He called it “frankly staggering” that officials didn’t tell him about the failed vetting, which took place in January 2025. Starmer says he only found out last week.
Starmer fired Mandelson in September, nine months into the job, when new details emerged about his friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.
Peter Mandelson is seen with his dog outside his home in London, Monday, April 20, 2026 as Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing a showdown in Parliament over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street in London, Monday, April 20, 2026 to face a showdown in Parliament over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
