HAGI SHINES IN MUTU FAREWELL MATCH
Romanian football icon Gheorghe Hagi was the star attraction during the farewell match for Adrian Mutu last month. The 57-year-old showed glimpses of what made him the greatest of all time in Romanian football. The Cluj Arena was filled with fans who gathered for a farewell match in honour of Ex-Chelsea and Parma striker Adrian Mutu. The match saw a star-studded Romanian team take on a world team managed by veteran Italian tactician Cesare Prandelli.
The star-studded Romanian team had the likes of left-back Razvan Rat, strikerCiprianMarica and goalkeeper Bogdan Stelea. Rat made 113 caps for Romania, while Stelea played 91 times for his country. On his part, Marica scored 25 goals in 72 games for Romania. For the world team, the likes of Claude Makelele, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Ricardo Montolivio, Alberto Gilardino, Luca Toni, Tomas Ujfalusi, Fernando Couto andDavid Trezeguet were featured.
The Cluj crowd gathered for the farewell match to watch their two idols, Adrian Mutu and Gheorghe Hagi. They have been the best two players of the last three decades as far as Romanian football is concerned. Hagi and Mutu have a lot in common as they both scored 35 goals each to emerge as joint leading for the Romanian national team. They also wore the number ten jersey while playing in attack.
Mutu and Hagi played together in attack for the star-studded Romanian team while wearing their number ten shirt. In his interview with reporters after the farewell game, 57-year-old Hagi deflected the attention on his performance by saying thegame was all about Mutu and that all eyes were on him.
For the farewell game, the star-studded Romanian and the world team played out a thrilling 3-3 draw. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink scored the first goal for the world team before Hagi provided the assist for Mutu to score the equaliser for the Romanian team.Hasselbaink scored again to help the world team regain the lead. In the second half, Gilardino made it 3-1 before two goals from IonelGanea ensured that the two teams settled for a draw.