After a break of
\nnearly 60 years, Romanian football will return to the Olympic Games. Romania’s under-21
\nteam qualified to the Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2019, when it also
\nsecured qualification to the semi-finals of the Under-21 European Championship
\nhosted by Italy and San Marino. Romania’s last participation in the Olympics
\ndates back to 1964, an edition hosted by Japan, when Romania reached the
\nquarterfinals. This will be Romania’s fourth participation in the Olympic
\nfootball event after the editions of 1924, 1952 and 1964.<\/p>\n
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\n
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Qualifying to the
\nOlympics is the result of years of preparation, which started with the Football
\nAcademy founded by Gheorghe Hagi, where 10 players performing for Romania’s
\nUnder-21 team spent their junior years. The list includes Ianis Hagi, the son
\nof the great Romanian footballer. Apart from hard training, another
\ncontributing factor was the decision to promote young players at the level of
\nFirst League teams in the Romanian domestic championship. A rule was introduced
\nin the First League providing that each team should field an under-21 player in
\nevery game, a decision which generated a lot of disgruntlement, but which
\napparently has yielded results. We shouldn’t forget the role of head coach Mirel
\nR\u0103doi, who managed to build a solid, consistent and offensive playstyle, one
\nmatching the talent of his players. Mirel R\u0103doi was subsequently promoted to
\nRomania’s senior team. <\/p>\n
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\n
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The postponement of
\nthe Tokyo Olympics for 2021 called into question the eligibility of some of the
\nplayers the contributed to the qualification. The International Football
\nFederation ruled, however, that even though they exceed 23 years of age,
\nplayers will still be able to play for their national teams. (VP) <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romania will be represented in the men’s Under-21 competition at the Olympic Games<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":82341,"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-121827","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