The feat is owing to the Romanian Under-21 team, which last summer
\nreached the semi-finals of the European Under-21 Championship, hosted by Italy
\nand San Marino. The last time the Romanian football team participated in the
\nOlympic Games was in 1964, when the edition was hosted by Japan, and when our
\nteam reached the quarterfinals. This will be Romania’s fourth presence in the
\nOlympic football tournament, after the editions of 1924, 1952 and 1964.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Last year’s
\nsuccess in Italy marked the biggest achievement for the Romanian under-21 team.
\nIt was the result of a long-term effort, which started with Gheorghe Hagi’s
\nFootball Academy, which trained 10 of the players called up to the squad,
\nincluding Ianis Hagi, the son of the former football legend. Adding to this
\neffort was the promotion of young players in the First League clubs, which
\ncreated a rule stipulating that each team should have an under-21 player in its
\nsquad for each fixture. The decision sparked a lot of criticism at the time,
\nbut eventually proved effective. Equal credit should be given to 39-year-old
\nheadcoach Mirel Radoi, who over a short period of time managed to build a
\nsolid, flowing and offensive playstyle, one to match the talent of his players.
\nRadoi was subsequently appointed coach of Romania’s senior team. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The postponement
\nof the Tokyo Olympics for next year has nevertheless called into question the participation
\nof several players who contributed to Romania’s qualification. The
\nInternational Football Federation ruled, however, that all players born in 1997
\nwill be eligible for the Olympic Games, despite no longer being under 23 years
\nof age next year. We recall the Olympic
\nGames in Tokyo were originally slated for July 24 – August 9, 2020, and have
\nbeen postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic to July 23 – August 8, 2021. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(Translated by
\nV. Palcu) <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After a break of nearly 60 years, Romanian football will again be represented in the Olympic Games<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":82400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40940],"tags":[35208,30415,34212],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-120748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-mirel-radoi","tag-olympic-games","tag-romanias-under-21-team"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n